Gertrude

ON S. GERTRUDE, VIRGIN, ABBESS OF NIVELLES IN BRABANT, IN THE YEAR 664

Preliminary Commentary.

Gertrude, Virgin, Abbess of Nivelles in Brabant (Saint)

Section I. Sacred cult: temples dedicated, translation of the body, Relics in other places.

[1] The origin of the ancient Franks, their earlier settlements, and various migrations we traced in the Life of S. Sigebert, King of the Austrasian Franks, on the Kalends of February, section 1, Nivelles and we showed that the Salian Franks, under the Emperor Constantius, son of Constantine the Great, migrated from Batavia to Roman soil near Toxandria and Tongres, and having established their royal seat at Disburg, that is Diest, on the river Demer, had to the south as their neighbors the Romans in Roman or Gallic Brabant: whose principal city is Nivelles, The domain of Blessed Pippin: in which lived Blessed Pippin, the father of S. Gertrude, Duke and Mayor of the Palace of the Kings of Austrasia, whose deeds we traced on February 21, his birthday, from which no small light accrues to the Acts of S. Gertrude to be given here. S. Gertrude was born of this father From what father S. Gertrude was born in the year 631 or the following, in the year of Christ 631, or the following: and when he died in the year 646, she had reached her fourteenth year of age, and was thereafter raised under the holy instruction of her most pious mother, Blessed Itta or Iduberga, and by her example received the sacred veil: afterward placed over the governance of the monastery built there by her mother under the direction of S. Amandus, Bishop of Utrecht. There is still a Chapter of both sexes, in which the most noble Canonical Virgins hold the worthier place, and the dominion of the city is in the hands of the Abbess of the same place. Blessed Itta or Iduberga, having died in the year 658, She died in the year 664 S. Gertrude survived until the year 664, in which she migrated to Christ, the heavenly Spouse, in the thirty-third year of her age, on a Sunday, the sixteenth day before the Kalends of April, as the author of her Life writes, who was present. It was the second Sunday of Lent, The second Sunday of Lent: with lunar cycle 19, solar cycle 1, dominical letters GF, on which Easter was celebrated on April 21. By which characteristics the Chronology ordered by us elsewhere is splendidly confirmed.

[2] The name of S. Gertrude was inserted into the sacred calendars, even the ancient ones, by authors close to her age. The Venerable Bede, as his genuine manuscript Martyrology indicates, Inscribed in the sacred calendars by Bede, wrote this: On the sixteenth day before the Kalends of April. In Scotland, the Birthday of Patrick the Confessor. On the same day, the death of S. Gertrude the Virgin. For death, in others, passing and birthday is read. Usuard indicates the place: On the same day, in the monastery of Nivigella, S. Gertrude the Virgin. In a Nivelles manuscript it is added: And others: daughter of Duke Pippin, whose illustrious deeds are recorded. In the Roman Martyrology this eulogy is read: At Nivigella in Brabant, S. Gertrude the Virgin, who, born of a most illustrious family, despising the world, and throughout the whole course of her life exercising herself in all the duties of holiness, merited to have Christ as her Spouse in heaven. She is honored with other eulogies by Notker, Maurolycus, Felicius, Galesinnius, Canisius, Witford, and others in their Martyrologies, and also by Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, Miraeus in the Belgian Calendar, Gelenius in the Cologne Calendar, Ghini in the Birthdays of the Saints of the Canons, Wion, Dorganius, Menard, and Bucelinus in their Benedictine Martyrologies. On the immediately following day it is recorded in the manuscript Martyrology of S. Cyriacus and the Paris manuscript of Usuard of S. Germanus: Venerated with Ecclesiastical Office among the Canons Regular on which day the Ecclesiastical Office is recited under the double rite among the Lateran Canons Regular, because March 16 is impeded by the festal cult of S. Patrick. Gabriel Pennottus in his Notes to these Offices charges the Benedictines with ascribing S. Gertrude to their own Order. But S. Gertrude is venerated on her own day among the Premonstratensian Canons, and the Canons Regular of Windesheim, and in the entire Carmelite Order, and throughout almost all the provinces and dioceses of Germany, from Salzburg, In most Churches of Germany, Poland, and Belgium: Passau, and Regensburg as far as Schleswig, Ratzeburg, and Kammin on the Baltic Sea: through Bohemia also and Poland: so that it is no wonder if the Trier, Cologne, and other provinces closer to Belgium honor her with the Ecclesiastical Office: which in Belgium the Churches of Cambrai, Namur, Liege, Louvain, Antwerp, Brussels, Bruges, and other Churches subject to them perform, as does the entire province of Utrecht with its subject Bishoprics. In the Breviary of Burgos among the Spanish also a Commemoration of S. Gertrude is prescribed.

[3] At Nivelles the body and churches dedicated to her: There are moreover illustrious churches dedicated to her name, among which the first to be reckoned should be that of Nivelles, in which the body of the most holy Virgin Gertrude is kept enclosed in a most honorable shrine. At Louvain also there is the illustrious Abbey of the noble Canons Regular of S. Gertrude, with an annexed parish church: where she is honored on the feast day by the constitution of Honorius III, as Molanus indicates. At Landen also, where she is said by some to have been born in the once famous palace of her parent Pippin, she has a church and a most celebrated cult, in which innumerable cures effected through her intercession are reported by Joseph Geldolph van Ryckel, Abbot of S. Gertrude of Louvain, in his Studies on S. Gertrude, page 198 and following, where he easily lists forty churches especially in Belgium sacred to S. Gertrude with singular cult. We shall treat below of Gertrudenberg. Certain sacred Relics are claimed by the nuns of Vorst near Brussels, together with her pastoral staff. Relics elsewhere in Belgium, A tooth of hers is piously preserved by the Cistercian monastery of Salzinnes near Namur: the Premonstratensians of the monastery of Parc near Louvain have some of the sacred bones of the same Virgin: as these are read in the Belgian Hierogazophylacium of Raissius, pages 222, 402, and 459. Gelenius in the Agrippensian Calendar has this eulogy about S. Gertrude: S. Gertrude the Virgin, daughter of Blessed Pippin, Duke of Agrippina, who at Cologne is honored by a church and monastery of her name: At Cologne, a jawbone of S. Gertrude is at Cologne in the church of Monte Maria of the Carmelite Virgins. The same Gelenius reports that at Cologne a small bone from her hand is preserved by the Carthusians; other particles of Relics are in the Collegiate churches of S. Severinus and S. Mary ad Gradus, in the parish of S. Lupus, likewise among the Benedictines of S. Martin, among the Poor Clares, and other Conventual Virgins of the Third Order of S. Francis. We are not entirely sure, however, that these are Relics of this Virgin Gertrude, since from the revelation of S. Elizabeth of Schonau and Blessed Hermann of Steinfeld, and from the names from sepulchral inscriptions and indices of churches collected by Hermann Crumbach, many are found among the Ursuline Virgins and Martyrs who are called by the name Gertrude. Some Relics of S. Gertrude the Virgin are in the church of the Annunciation of the Virgin outside the walls of the city of Bologna, And at Bologna: as Masini indicates in his survey of Bologna.

[4] Besides this birthday, other festivities have been established in honor of S. Gertrude: among which on the second of December the consecration of S. Gertrude the Virgin is recorded at Nivelles from the proper Martyrology of the place, in Molanus in the Additions to Usuard and in his Index and Birthdays of the Saints

of Belgium: Consecration of S. Gertrude on December 2. which had long before been observed by the author of the manuscript Florarium, a Canon Regular, in these words: On the same day the consecration or veiling of S. Gertrude the Virgin of Nivelles, of the stock of the Carolingians, performed by Blessed Amandus, Bishop of Utrecht and Confessor, in the year of salvation 650. Canisius in the German Martyrology, Saussay in the Gallican, and others in the monastic ones also mention the same consecration. Another solemnity is celebrated on February 10 on account of the elevation of the body of the most blessed Gertrude, Elevation of the body on February 10, about which the cited author of the manuscript Florarium has this: At Nivelles, a town of Brabant, the Translation of S. Gertrude

of Belgium: Consecration of S. Gertrude on December 2. which had long before been observed by the author of the manuscript Florarium, a Canon Regular, in these words: On the same day the consecration or veiling of S. Gertrude the Virgin of Nivelles, of the stock of the Carolingians, performed by Blessed Amandus, Bishop of Utrecht and Confessor, in the year of salvation 650. Canisius in the German Martyrology, Saussay in the Gallican, and others in monastic ones also mention the same consecration. Another solemnity is celebrated on February 10 on account of the elevation of the body of the most blessed Gertrude, Elevation of the body on February 10, about which the cited author of the manuscript Florarium has this: At Nivelles, a town of Brabant, the Translation of S. Gertrude the Virgin, daughter of Pippin, the first Duke of Brabant, and Deposition in a more celebrated place. The Duchy of Blessed Pippin has been discussed in his Life on February 21. But the said Translation of S. Gertrude is read inscribed in an ancient hand in the manuscript of Ado from the monastery of S. Lawrence at Liege: a memorial of the same is inserted in the manuscript Cologne Martyrology of S. Mary ad Gradus, in which church we have said that a certain particle of Relics is preserved. Grevenus and Molanus in the Additions to Usuard, Canisius, Saussay, and the monastic Martyrologists mention the said Elevation. Moreover, on the third day before the Kalends of June a Translation into a new bier in the year 1298 is noted in Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium. Translation on May 30 and April 10. But on the fourth day before the Ides of April a second Translation is celebrated by Hermann Greven in the Additions to Usuard, by Canisius, and more expressly in the manuscript Florarium.

Section II. The Life of S. Gertrude written by various authors.

[5] The Life of S. Gertrude was written by an author who was contemporary, domestic, and an eyewitness of many things, who lived as a Cleric or Canon in her monastery at the time of S. Gertrude, and as far as may be conjectured, a Priest. Hence in the Prologue he asserts that he endeavors to make known in writing what he saw or heard through reliable witnesses. The Life written by an eyewitness, Then at number 8 he testifies that when S. Gertrude had given up her spirit, he and another Brother named Rinchinus had been summoned for the consolation of the Sisters or nuns, and had perceived the sweetest fragrance then and as they departed thence. And at the end he adds: Lest this perhaps seem incredible to anyone, I call God as witness that what I saw with my own eyes and learned through reliable witnesses, this I wrote. Published from a manuscript: We give this Life, transmitted to us from the manuscript codex of the monastery of Val-Luisant, of the Cistercian Order in the diocese of Sens, by Pierre-François Chifflet of our Society: and we have collated it with our copy, formerly transcribed from another manuscript codex, at the end of which some things are appended. Surius had a similar codex, in which, unless he himself omitted it, the last miracle was missing. For the rest, he asserts that he changed the style Polished and condensed by Surius, augmented by others and often altered. and published the miracles in summary form. Another person also interpolated this first Life of S. Gertrude and tried to polish it with a better style, which we had from the manuscript of the Louvain Abbey of S. Gertrude: but we omit it, since it has already been published by the Abbot of the said monastery, Joseph Geldolph van Ryckel. Not very dissimilar to this is one we transcribed from a manuscript Codex of the Most Serene Queen Christina of Sweden, to which another Prologue is prefixed, and at the end two miracles are appended, which we give from there in the Appendix. The same are found in the Munster codex of Bernard Rottendorf, amplified in a more elegant style.

[6] Another Life, divided into three books, exists in the manuscript codices of S. Maximin of Trier, S. Salvator of Utrecht, the monastery of Bonfont in the diocese of Reims, Another divided into three books, the Canons Regular of S. Paul, and a double manuscript of Rouge-Cloitre in the forest of Soignes near Brussels. This author admits in the Prologue that he writes this Life chiefly The principal matter taken from the former, according to what was delivered to us in a most truthful and faithful narration, although in an uncultivated speech, by one who saw her life and virtues with his own eyes, and who was present at the sacred obsequies while the divine fragrance spread throughout the whole cell. While he treats in book 2 of the diffused divine fragrance at her death, he adds: That Brother whom Rinchinus then questioned afterward wrote the Life of the Virgin, which he had seen with his own eyes, in a simple and rustic style but with truthful speech. From which, having taken up the matter, we have taken care to shape it in our narrative and deliver it to the charity of the holy Virgins. We had determined to give this Life divided into three books, and had indeed illustrated it with our own observations: but we saw that the author did not rest on sufficiently solid principles when he adds other things not excerpted from the earlier Life: as is Gertrude's journey to eastern Francia, which we shall demonstrate below to be a mere fable. Then the first book scarcely pertains to S. Gertrude, but to the deeds of others from her family. From this we published on February 21 what pertains to Blessed Pippin the father, and shall publish on May 8 the Life of Blessed Itta or Iduberga the mother, and on December 18 the Acts of S. Begga the Sister, from whom and her husband Ansigisel were born Pippin of Herstal, Charles Martel, Pippin the King, Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, and his posterity, whom the author did not dare to enumerate, lest on account of so many Charleses, Carlomans, Lothairs, Pippins, and Louises, Published at Louvain and omitted. confusion might arise from the similarity of names. Whence we gather that the author lived when the kingdom of the Franks had long since departed from the Carolingian family: and Emperors from other families reigned in Germany and Kings in Gaul: perhaps in the eleventh or twelfth century, when the Lives of S. Lambert, Bavo, and others in Belgium were ineptly reformed and interpolated. We refer the curious reader to Joseph Geldolph van Ryckel, Abbot of S. Gertrude at Louvain, who published this Life in the Louvain press in 1632, and we note that it was written in the order indicated on page 102. From this longer Life is condensed the one which exists in the second part of the Legend, printed at Cologne in 1483 and at Louvain in 1485, with the same flight into eastern Francia: which is also found inserted in some Martyrologies and Breviaries. Other Lives condensed from this: We also have a Sermon on the praises of S. Gertrude the Virgin, transcribed from the first part of the Hagiologium of the Brabantines, preserved in the library of Rouge-Cloitre, Sermon on S. Gertrude which we also found in the second part of the various Legendaries of the monastery of Corsendonk, likewise of Canons Regular, near Turnhout. The sentence from sacred Scripture prefixed is from Tobit 3: I have kept my soul clean from all concupiscence, and then it begins thus: To conceal the secret of the king is good, History of the Relics and miracles: but to reveal and confess the works of God is honorable. Which it suffices to have indicated. But we give from the same codices the History of the Relics of S. Gertrude examined, and of three illustrious miracles, and we call it the second Appendix.

[7] Thierry, Abbot of S. Trond, in the Life of S. Bavo to be illustrated on the Kalends of October, writes that the happy soul of S. Bavo appeared at the very hour of his departure to the holy Virgin Gertrude, dwelling far away in the monastery of Nivelles, S. Bavo appears to S. Gertrude after death. so that she might send the linens necessary for preparing the burial. However, because Thierry asserts the death of S. Bavo occurred in the year 631, in which year or the following S. Gertrude was only born, the matter would be suspect, were it not established from other sources that Thierry plainly erred in the years of Christ and in assigning certain Emperors and Pontiffs. Certainly in the Life of S. Amandus on February 6, section 13, we showed that S. Bavo died in the year 657, and consequently was born near the beginning of the seventh century, and not indeed in the year 578, as Charles le Cointe deduces from Thierry in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks at the said year, numbers 6 and 7. We said moreover, section 8, in the Life of S. Amandus, number 59, that the Emperor Otto I, Her dwelling at Gertrudenberg: by a diploma given in the year 966, confirmed to the Nivelles community the inheritance of S. Gertrude, situated in the district of Tessandria, on the river Strona, in the estate called Bergom: and that Countess Hilsunda of Strien, by a diploma signed in the year 992, for the foundation of the monastery of Thorn on the Meuse, donated the church of Strien, which is consecrated in honor of the Virgin Mary; Mons littoris, where the most blessed Gertrude dwelt bodily and has a cell consecrated by S. Amandus. The said Bergom or Mons littoris is now Berga or Gertrudenberg, a town of the province of Holland, situated on the further bank toward Brabant not far from Breda, formerly of the diocese of Utrecht, then Liege, now Bois-le-Duc: and not far from there across the strait of Biesbosch is still the small district of Strien.

[8] Another town exists, called Fosse, beyond the river Sambre above Namur, belonging to Nivelles, now of the jurisdiction of Liege, once given by S. Gertrude to the brothers SS. Foillan and Ultan, as is indicated in book 2 of the later Life in Geldolph, and in the ancient Life of S. Foillan, which we shall give from several manuscripts on October 31. We present a few things from this to the reader, and they are these: The town of Fosse given to SS. Foillan and Ultan. There were in that place many of the female sex blessing the name of the Lord: among whom the holy Virgin Gertrude of Nivelles shone like the moon among lesser stars. She, learning that Foillan was a Bishop, most holy in character, cultivated him with kind familiarity, providing him and his brother Ultan with whatever the needs of the flesh required. Moreover she herself was daily refreshed by Blessed Foillan with spiritual food, and at last, having consulted her mother Iduberga, Blessed Gertrude gave to S. Foillan from her own properties the place which the natives call Fosses, by perpetual right: where the Saint built a church and distributed the dwelling of the Brothers through cells: committing their care to his brother Ultan, he returned to Blessed Gertrude. Philippe of the Alms, Abbot of Bonne-Esperance, deduces the same at greater length, which may be seen in his work. There also exist various hymns and other canticles in various Breviaries and in Geldolph van Ryckel, which the curious reader may find there.

LIFE

By a Contemporary Author, a Domestic Cleric or Priest, from various manuscripts

Gertrude, Virgin, Abbess of Nivelles in Brabant (Saint)

BY A CONTEMPORARY AUTHOR FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

PROLOGUE.

[1] We believe, through the gift of holy and inseparable charity, and we hold by inviolate and stable faith, that those desiring to keep the way of the heavenly homeland and to abandon earthly gains completely can be helped to obtain eternal rewards; if in writing or preaching I strive to remind them truthfully of something, albeit little, about the life or manner of living of the Saints and holy Virgins of Christ, for the edification or advancement of neighbors: The Life is proposed for imitation. so that the examples of the preceding Saints and holy Virgins may be able to illuminate the darkness of our heart with the flame of charity and the ardor of holy compunction. Therefore, with the help of the Holy Spirit, the maker of all things, I shall endeavor to make known to your charity in writing the life and manner of living of the most blessed Virgin and handmaid of Christ, Mother Gertrude, by which she lived according to God and in discipline

regularly under the vault of heaven, according to what we either saw or heard through reliable witnesses, with Christ helping, and with the holy maiden Dominica the Abbess and the holy congregation of the Nivelles monastery (where the holy Virgin appeared to preside) requesting, I shall try to make known to your charity in writing. But to insert in this discourse in what order she received her genealogy from her earthly origin would be lengthy. For who dwelling in Europe is ignorant of the exaltation, the names, and the places of this lineage?

In the manuscript of the Most Serene Queen Christina of Sweden, this Prologue is prefixed: About the life and manner of living of the blessed Virgin Gertrude, not fully (for we are not sufficient) but as we are able, Another prologue: as we ourselves saw or heard from reliable witnesses reporting, with the Lord Jesus Christ first helping and the venerable maiden Dominica, Abbess of the Nivelles monastery, urging us on, we have consented to write: and first, in what order she drew the line of blood from her stock, although all Europe has not been ignorant of this, it will not be useless to explain in a few words. Another Prologue is prefixed to the longer Life in Ryckel, and it is augmented in the manuscript of Rouge-Cloitre.

Whether Lady Abbess, namely Agnes, about whose death he said nothing.

The following is absent from the manuscript and Louvain edition: for which these are substituted, as also in the manuscript of the Queen of Sweden. Pippin, once the son of Prince Carloman (who with Blessed Arnulf under the Kings Clothar and Dagobert Inserted about the family of S. Gertrude governed the people dwelling between the Carbonarian forest and the rivers Meuse and Moselle as far as the borders of the Frisians in vast territories, with just laws) was the father of the blessed Virgin; her mother was Itta. She had a brother Grimoald, who with the help of S. Cunibert, Bishop of Cologne, succeeded his father in the Principate under King Sigebert. She had a sister named Begga, who married Duke Ansigisel, the son of Arnulf: whose son was Pippin the Prince. She also had as relatives by blood the Virgins Aldegundis and Waldetrudis, and many other men and women of that time, not only in consanguinity but also in their manner of life and religious profession: whom, because we are hastening here to describe the life of the holy Virgin, we refrain from writing about. The same things but in a different phrasing are contained in the manuscript of Rottendorf. The earlier items about the territory of Pippin are taken from the Metz Annals. Consult the items published on February 21. We gave the various Acts of S. Aldegundis on January 30: but without mention of this kinship. Her sister was S. Waldetrudis, married to S. Vincent, to whom she bore four children. Is she here called Virgin, that is, nun, because she was the foundress of the Canonesses at Mons and lived among them? The same things are found almost verbatim in book 1 of the longer Life, omitting the name of the Virgins.

In the Life of S. Theodard, Bishop of Utrecht, on September 10, the following is read: What need is there to proclaim the nobility of Gertrude of Nivelles, whose glory of name is more diffuse than all of Gaul.

CHAPTER I

The pious education of S. Gertrude: her life holily lived.

[2] Therefore while the holy maiden of God, Gertrude, was in the house of her parents, at the feet of her mother of blessed memory, Itta, she meditated day and night on the word and wisdom of God, and dear to God and beloved by men, She is piously educated under S. Itta her mother: she grew beyond those of her own age. This was the first beginning of her election in the service of Christ, as we have learned through a just and truthful man who was present there: that when her father Pippin had invited King Dagobert to a noble banquet in his house; there came thither a certain pestilent man, a son of the Duke of the Austrasians, who asked the King and the parents of the maiden that the maiden herself be promised to him in marriage according to the custom of the world. She spurns a bridegroom offered by King Dagobert: On account of earthly ambition and mutual friendship, it pleased the King; and he persuaded the father of the maiden that in his presence she should be summoned with her mother. But they, not knowing for what reason the King was calling the child, she was asked at the feast by the King whether she wished to have that boy, adorned with gold and dressed in silk, as a bridegroom. She, however, as if filled with fury, rejected him with an oath and said: Because I wish to have neither him nor any other earthly one as a bridegroom, but Christ the Lord, She clings to Christ: so that the King himself and his nobles greatly marveled at those things that had been spoken by a little girl at God's command. That boy, however, departed confused, full of anger. The holy maiden, however, turned to her mother: and from that day her parents knew by what kind of King she had been loved.

[3] After fourteen years, however, when her father Pippin had departed from this light, After the death of her father she is consecrated as a nun by S. Amandus, she followed her mother in widowhood, and served her soberly and chastely in obedience and in the commandments of God. And when the aforesaid mother of the household daily pondered what she should do both about herself and about her orphan daughter; the man of God, Bishop Amandus, coming to her house and preaching the word of God at the Lord's command, asked that she build a monastery for herself and for her daughter, the handmaid of God Gertrude, and for the household of Christ: and as soon as she understood the knowledge of an unknown thing pertaining to the salvation of souls, she received the sacred veil, and gave herself to God and all that she had. But the enemy of the human race and instigator, who from the beginning is envious and resistant to good works, was strengthening the hearts of the wicked, so that from those who should have helped her to do God's will, she endured no small temptation. What injuries or indignities and deprivations the aforesaid handmaid of God with her daughter endured for the name of Christ, it would be long to write if narrated individually. But this alone, that on account of the devotion and desire for the divine which she had in herself, lest the violators of souls should seize her daughter by force for the allurements and pleasures of this world, She is holily preserved by her mother: she seized a barber's iron and cut the hair of the holy maiden in the shape of a crown. The holy handmaid of Christ Gertrude, however, giving thanks to God, rejoiced that she had merited in this brief life to receive a crown on her head for Christ, so that she might be worthy to have there a perpetual crown, the integrity of body and soul. Then the merciful God and helper in tribulations recalled those adversaries to the concord of peace. The quarrels ceased, the devil's party was defeated. The mother of the household, Itta, handed her daughter, God's chosen Gertrude, to the Priests of the Lord to receive the sacred veil with her companions, She receives the sacred veil: and by Christ's ordering she appointed her to preside over the holy flock of cenobites. For the Virgin herself had great continence of character: surpassing advanced age in sobriety of mind and moderation of speech. She was endowed with charity, beautiful of face, but more beautiful of mind: perfect in chastity, generous in almsgiving, devoted to fasts and prayers, Adorned with virtues: provident in the care of the poor and pilgrims, pious to the sick and elderly, and to the young she was vigorous in discipline, and she had pastoral care over the ecclesiastical vessels with the greatest zeal. And through her messengers, men of good testimony, she brought in the patronage of the Saints and holy volumes from the city of Rome and from overseas regions, learned men to teach the songs of the divine law, so that she and hers might merit, by God's inspiration, to have what should be meditated upon.

[4] When all these things were arranged according to the divine order, After the mother's death full of days and at a perfect age, leaving an example of good work to posterity, having offspring and from them seeing grandchildren, in approximately the sixtieth year of her age, the mother of blessed memory Itta, in the twelfth year after the death of her most illustrious husband Pippin the Lord, commending her spirit to God and the Angels, migrated to the Lord, and in the monastery of Nivelles under the protection of Blessed Peter the Apostle she was honorably given to burial. She shares the burden with others, When, therefore, the blessed handmaid of God Gertrude, after her mother's death, had taken upon herself alone every burden of governance; she pondered within herself about heavenly contemplation, which she had desired to have for herself without the tumult of secular affairs. To good and faithful stewards outside from the Brothers, and within the walls of the monastery to spiritual Sisters, she commended the domestic care: so that day and night in holy combat with vigils and holy prayers, readings and fasts she might be able to fight against the spiritual forces of wickedness, She devotes herself to pious exercises. so the outcome of the matter was manifest in her, that she stored away in her memory nearly the entire library of the divine law, and opened the obscure mysteries of allegory plainly to her hearers, the Holy Spirit revealing them. Likewise she built the churches of the Saints and other principal buildings from the foundations: and to orphans, widows, captives, and pilgrims she ministered daily sustenance with all generosity.

[5] Nor should it be passed over, as I think, what the handmaid of God herself, as if terrified by fear, narrated to us. When she had stood at the altar of S. Sixtus the Martyr for the sake of prayer, she saw descending upon her a flaming transparent sphere, so that the entire basilica was illuminated by its brightness, for about half an hour: and gradually it receded whence it had come: and afterward, in the sight of other Sisters, it again appeared upon her in the same manner. What did the manifestation of this light indicate, except a visitation of the true light, which illuminates every Saint praying for himself and for all the faithful in Christ?

[6] On a certain day, however, when those sent on a mission were in danger at sea, the commemoration of this same Gertrude of blessed memory came opportunely to their rescue for life. While they were sailing in the deep with calm weather for the benefit of the monastery, far off appeared a vessel of wondrous size coming from the side. When it had approached, a great tempest arose, and the sea swelled with enormous waves. And behold a great and terrible sea monster appeared to the same messengers at about a sling-throw's distance: whose back they saw not entirely, but in part. And the sailors, trembling, hoping nothing for life, made vows to their idols: but the messengers themselves, invoking the name of the Lord, hoped for that last hour. And one of our men, who still lives, cried out and said three times: Gertrude, help us, as you promised. Certainly he who saw and heard was a witness: at the third time he repeated the word, the sea-monster sought the deep, and they with joy and calm obtained the port that night: thus through the prayer of his handmaid, Christ deigned to free his poor from death.

Surius published: She meditated on the wisdom of the Word of God.

Our copy: might be joined according to the dignity of the world. Surius adds: And this speech was pleasing to the King.

About ten years old. Certainly, with King Dagobert dying in the year 644, she was twelve years old, born in 632.

Namely from birth. Surius altered it thus: Fourteen years having elapsed from then: where "from then" seems to refer to the King's address. Blessed Pippin died in the year 646.

The manuscript of Val-Luisant reads: she persevered.

We have said the same things in the Life of S. Amandus, who then presided over the Church of Utrecht, under which Nivelles was: and we have adduced the Life of S. Modoaldus, Bishop of Trier, brother of S. Iduberga. Consult sections 8 and 11.

In the manuscript and Louvain edition and the manuscript of the Queen of Sweden, it is added: and of the Scottish nation. In the longer Life SS. Foillan and Ultan are named.

From Grimoald his brother she saw Childebert, afterward King of Austrasia: from S. Begga she could also have seen her children: and perhaps Pippin, afterward Prince. Of the niece Wulfedrudis we shall treat below.

In the manuscripts of the Queen of Sweden and Louvain: She completed sixty years of age.

In the same: She had lived after the death of her illustrious husband... twelve years, therefore she died in the year 658. Her birthday is May 8.

In our copy: she had been exhorted.

In the same it is added: to the one who wrote these things. Surius altered it thus: We have these things indeed from him who was present.

CHAPTER II.

Preparation for death, happy departure, burial.

[7] After some years, when on account of excessive abstinence and the keeping of vigils, her little body was gravely worn out by a great illness; Foreseeing her death, by divine revelation the blessed Virgin Gertrude knew that her passing from this light was approaching. With the counsel, therefore, of the servants of God male and female, she completely abandoned every honor and the title of honor and the pastoral care which she had over the flock of Christ in bodily matters, Caring for nothing except only spiritual things for the love of Christ: and she appointed her niece, imbued and nurtured in sacred letters from the cradle under the norm of the holy Rule at her feet, named Wulfedrudis, compelled to take her place, to govern the flock of God and minister to the poor. She substitutes in her governance Wulfedrudis her niece, Then that consecrated maiden Wulfedrudis was in her twentieth year of age: she too was born of the ancient and illustrious Frankish line. She was serene of face, dear to the household, gentle to her subjects, hard on the proud, generous to the poor, dutiful to her relatives, pleasant in speech, fervent in charity toward God and neighbor, and she remained pure in her continence. It happened, however, from paternal hatred, that Kings, Queens, and even Priests, through the envy of the devil, wished first by persuasion and then by force to remove her from her place, so that they might unjustly possess the things of God over which the blessed maiden presided. But protected by the mercy of the Lord and the prayers of the Saints, Christ to whom she had devoted herself as a handmaid resisted all her adversaries in a wondrous manner, and God thus bestowed his grace upon her, that those who had previously been plunderers and accusers through cupidity, afterward became defenders through generosity and kindness. When all things, therefore, were well arranged, and the churches of Christ restored, then in the eleventh year from the time she undertook to govern the flock entrusted to her, for more than fifty days with the illness raging, she was confined to bed, bestowing generous alms as usual through the poor and needy, she forgave all according to the Gospel their debts, and received peace and blessing from all. Among the spiritual handmaids of God, trusting faithfully in faith and hope in Christ, in the thirtieth year of her age she sent forth her joyful spirit on the ninth day before the Kalends of December, and in the bosom of the basilica of Blessed Peter the Apostle she is covered with the greatest care by a marble tomb, where she awaits the day of the resurrection of all the Saints.

[8] Let us return to where we digressed. The blessed handmaid of God Gertrude, therefore, after she had released the bond of honor from her conscience; for about the space of three months without ceasing, praying, exhorting, and preaching the word of the Lord to her own, she did not cease to speak: rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, unconquered in mind, serene of face, she desired the last day of her passing to be at hand. From prison to the kingdom, She prepares for a happy death: from darkness to light, from death she was hastening to life: and though alone in the world here with the body, she daily desired in her spirit to pass to eternal things. She was advancing in virtues, serving singularly in continual prayers, affliction, and abstinence. She also added a rough garment of haircloth and secretly clothed her little body with it: so that she might have no sweetness of refreshment in this life, except where the Saints shall shine like the Sun in the kingdom of their Father. And when she reached her last day, she decreed that in the place of burial itself no woolen or linen garment should be placed over her, She asks for a lowly burial: except one very lowly veil (which a certain pilgrim nun had sent to her many days before as a blessing) for covering the head, and the haircloth itself in the tomb, where she rests in peace: nor is she covered with any other covering, except these two, the haircloth in which she had been clothed, and the old cloth with which the haircloth was covered. She used to say that superfluous things could help neither the dying nor the living: which the wise testify to be true. Having sent someone to S. Ultan, Then when the day of the taking up of her soul was approaching, she called one of the Brothers and commanded him, saying: Go quickly to that pilgrim who is called by the name Ultan, who is far away in the monastery called Fosse, and say to him: The Virgin of Christ Gertrude has sent me to you, to ask on what day she will migrate from this light, because she says she is very afraid, and likewise she rejoices. And he will tell you what you should report back to me. Go, do not hesitate. He quickly fulfilled the command and asked what had been enjoined upon him. And that servant of God Ultan without delay gave the answer to the same messenger, and said: Today is the sixteenth day before the Kalends of April. Tomorrow, however, during the solemnities of the Mass, that handmaid of God and Virgin of Christ, Gertrude, will migrate from the body. She learns the day and hour of her death: And tell her not to fear or tremble about her death, but to go forth joyfully: because Blessed Bishop Patrick with the elect Angels of God and with great glory are prepared to receive her. Go and you too quickly. The Brother who had been sent, however, asked him whether he had seen this matter by divine revelation, so that he might indicate it to her in order. And that servant of God Ultan said in response: Go and you, Brother, hastening, know this: that tomorrow she will migrate to the Lord. Why do you question me further? Returning, he announced to the handmaid of Christ what had been said to him. And she, as if awakening from sleep, rendered her face cheerful with joy, giving thanks to God because through his servant he had deigned to console his handmaid. Thus, joyful over his promise, she remained so that throughout the whole night with the Sisters she kept vigil in psalms and prayers. Having received the viaticum, she dies. On the next day, a Sunday, at about the sixth hour, according to the word of the man of God, she received the most sacred viaticum of the Body and Blood of Christ. And when the Priest had finished the secret sentence of the Lord, in the thirty-third year of her age, on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of April, giving thanks to her Creator, who without corruption had deigned to call her to his kingdom, she gave back to God her desired spirit. While I and another Brother, named Rinchinus, had been summoned there for the consolation of the Sisters, She emits a sweet fragrance: that servant of God called me by name, Rinchinus, and said: Do you perceive anything? And I replied: Nothing, except I see the Sisters in great grief. When I had said this, the sweetest fragrance came: and as if the scent of mixed ointments, that cell where the holy body lay was redolent. And we, departing thence, still perceived in our nostrils the sweetness of that wondrous fragrance. Because everything that was done around her body, which she had long prepared for herself, she had arranged honorably; She is buried. with divine praises by Priests and handmaids of God, the body of the most blessed Virgin of Christ Gertrude is honorably given to burial, where daily the benefits of her prayers are bestowed.

Wulfedrudis, the daughter of her brother Grimoald, hence she is called her aunt among the Nivelles people, as Raissius calls her in the Belgian Hierogazophylacium, page 233.

Wulfedrudis, by others Wulfetrudis, Wolfedrudis, Wilfetrudis.

The cause of hatred toward her. Because Grimoald after the death of S. Sigebert, having sent away to Ireland the son Dagobert, had intruded his own son Childebert. Consult our Diatribe on the three Dagoberts, book 2, chapter 2.

The Kings Clothar III and Childeric, brothers; the Queens: S. Bathild, mother of these, and Immechilda, widow of S. Sigebert, as is established from the matters related in the said chapter 2.

Raissius, cited above, writes that her body is still preserved there.

Our copy reads: of the burden.

S. Ultan, brother of SS. Foillan and Fursey, is venerated on May 1.

The town of Fosse Fosse, donated by S. Gertrude to SS. Foillan and Ultan, now a town of the jurisdiction of Liege, distant from Nivelles beyond the Sambre above Namur by a space of about six leagues.

In the longer Life an exhortation to the nuns is inserted.

The second Sunday of Lent in the year 664, as has been proven above.

CHAPTER III

The earlier miracles of S. Gertrude, done in the time of the Abbess Wulfedrudis.

[9] Since we observe many men in this age living and leading an Angelic life, whence can this happen, unless because, although they live here bodily among men as long as they subsist in the body, yet their mind and conscience is grounded in eternity, and their heart is unceasingly occupied in the contemplation of divinity. So also this handmaid of Christ Gertrude: That S. Gertrude lives in heaven her miracles declare. whose life and manner of living we have described from the earliest age of her youth, although she dwelt here carnally among mortals and was the governor of the men and women servants of Christ who lived under her authority, yet she never consigned to oblivion the inner and perpetual life, nor did she lose the state of her uprightness, nor the gravity of her character, nor the discipline of her rigor. Therefore it is manifest that she merited from the almighty Lord that, after her death, no small miracles are wrought through her: so that it might now also be known to all who recognized her life or the abstinence of her body, how much she can obtain by her prayers with God; when we shall have commemorated and brought forth some of the miracles which the Lord, as the faith of the penitent requires, deigned to display at her tomb.

[10] There was a certain Abbess in a monastery at Trier, whose name was Modesta, and she herself had been consecrated to the Lord from her infancy, and likewise she seemed to be bound to S. Gertrude in familiar divine friendship. And although they were far placed and far separated from each other bodily, and many thousands of spaces intervening; She herself appears at the hour of her death to Abbess S. Modesta: what they could not see of each other with the gaze of their eyes, in mind, however, and in the love of the heart they were always present: because they bore an equal warfare of servitude, and served the Lord in sincerity

of heart equally without deceit they served. After a long space of time, however, this happened which I wish to recall to your memory by narrating, that on a certain day when the aforesaid handmaid of God Modesta, situated in her monastery, had entered her church for the sake of prayer, and had prostrated herself in prayer before the altar of the Blessed Mary ever Virgin. When, however, she had risen after finishing her prayer and was looking around on all sides, she suddenly gazed and saw on the right side of the altar Saint Gertrude standing in the same habit and in the same form in which she herself had been fashioned. And she said to her: Sister Modesta, hold this vision for certain, and know without any ambiguity that today at this same hour I have been released from the habitation of this flesh. I am Gertrude, whom you greatly loved. And having said these things, she was taken away from the eyes of the one beholding. Then she was quietly pondering within herself what so great a vision could mean. And on that same day she indicated no word to anyone about that vision. When, however, the next day arrived, the Bishop of the city, named Chlodulphus, came to the monastery of the aforesaid handmaid of God Modesta. Then among other conversations that Virgin of God asked the Bishop about S. Gertrude, in what habit or order or appearance she had been. And he immediately related in order the stature of her body and the appearance of her beauty. Then Blessed Modesta understood from the sign which she had heard from the Bishop that what she had previously seen was true, and she said to him: This I now confess to you, which before I concealed, that it was revealed to me yesterday at about the sixth hour, because she had migrated from this light on that same day and at that same hour. And afterward she disclosed the whole matter in order to the Bishop. The aforesaid Bishop Chlodulphus, however, recording the day itself and the hour, found the order of the matter to have been just as the aforesaid Abbess had previously indicated.

[11] In the tenth year, however, after the death of the Virgin of Christ S. Gertrude, they assert that a fire broke out in the monastery of Nivelles: where the Virgin of Christ S. Gertrude herself had presided as long as she lived in the body. The violent flame burst forth so much, they say, that none of the monks or virgins or men running together there had any hope of saving the monastery from the fire. Appearing, she drives away the fire from the monastery: The handmaids of God, however, who had gathered there, fled outside the wall beyond the monastery to the neighboring places. Then a certain man, to whom the care of governing the monastery had been entrusted, suddenly raising his eyes, saw S. Gertrude standing on the top of the refectory, in the same appearance and habit in which she herself had been, and with the same veil with which she was always covered, she was casting the flame away from the building. That man, however, not terrified by so great a vision but filled with great joy, was exhorting his companions to act steadfastly. He himself, however, ran up swiftly to see the outcome of the matter. Then in a wondrous manner they suddenly saw the monastery freed from that fire.

[12] At another time also some of the Sisters were admonished by a vision that in that very bed where S. Gertrude, the handmaid of Christ, after the labor of vigils and the urgency of prayers, was accustomed to lay her weary limbs, no human being should dare to rest any longer. Then the aforesaid handmaid of God, the Lady Abbess, The bed, famous for miracles, is carried to the church of S. Paul: the niece of Saint Gertrude, who had been nurtured at her feet, was filled with joy that the Lord had deigned to manifest her through such great miracles of signs. Having convoked the entire congregation, they took up that little bed and carried it with great honor and the praises of God, and placed it in the basilica of Saint Paul the Apostle: where now the Lord deigns to show many signs and miracles.

[13] There was a certain maiden in the same region whom a most grievous illness had oppressed, A sick and blind girl is healed by its touch: so that no physician had been able to heal her for many years. And at last she lost the light of her eyes and became blind. Then the parents of that maiden took her and brought her with them to the monastery of Nivelles, so that they might at least find there some physicians who could cure her. Then on that same night S. Gertrude appeared to her in a vision and said to her: Maiden, do not doubt; but believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and go to the bed which is placed in the Church of Blessed Paul the Apostle, where Gertrude was accustomed to rest: there you will receive health from every tribulation which you suffer in your body. That maiden, however, on account of the severity of her infirmity, was not able to arrive there before the third day. And when the whole congregation was present at the third hour for the divine office, and the work of God was completed; the maiden who had been sick arriving, the Priests took her and brought her to the little bed where she had been ordered to go. And when she had prostrated herself in prayer to the Lord and leaned toward the bed, immediately her eyes were opened: and the whole body, which before had been wounded, was so suddenly healed as if it had never had any wound. She gave thanks to God and was filled with great joy: and with exultation she returned to her parents.

S. Modesta. S. Modesta is venerated on November 4, about whom we treated at greater length in the Diatribe on the three Dagoberts, book 2, chapter 12, because she is commonly believed to have succeeded S. Irmina, daughter of Dagobert II. But Dagobert at this time, a young man tonsured as a Cleric, was living in Ireland, having been sent there the preceding year.

The Avend monastery. We showed in the said chapter 12 that an error crept into this passage, and it should be read in the Avend monastery, which S. Romaricus had built for nuns in his County of Avend, occupying both banks of the nascent Moselle, around Remiremont: for Trier is not a monastery but a city containing various monasteries.

She is commonly held to be the niece of S. Modoaldus, Bishop of Trier, born of his sister, just as S. Gertrude was born of another sister, Itta. They would therefore have been cousins, Were they cousins? and hence the error could have crept in that she is said to have lived in a Trier monastery. With remarkable silence this kinship is everywhere suppressed in her Life.

The manuscript of Val-Luisant reads: by many miles and spaces of land. That is, in French leagues at least 60.

This is S. Chlodulphus, Bishop of the city of Metz, 25 French leagues distant from the monastery in which S. Modesta dwelt: S. Chlodulphus. whose brother Ansigisel was the husband of S. Begga, sister of S. Gertrude. He is venerated on June 8.

Wulfedrudis, about whom we treated at number 7. The name of the Abbess Dominica had been ineptly intruded in place of Lady: whether also in the Prologue is doubtful.

CHAPTER IV.

Miracles of S. Gertrude performed in the decade after her death.

[14] When these things were thus done, it happened that the aforesaid Abbess, the niece of Blessed Gertrude, the Virgin of Christ, migrated from this light, who after her had been the governor of the Nivelles monastery. The Abbess Agnes builds a church for S. Gertrude: the bed is carried into it: Then the entire household unanimously elected one maiden, born of a noble family, as their Abbess, whose name was Agnes, who herself likewise had been nurtured by Blessed Gertrude. She afterward built a basilica in honor of S. Gertrude, the Virgin of Christ. On the very same day on which the church had been built, when the bed had been carried there with honor, that night all the Sisters held solemnities and vigils with the greatest reverence in the same church. When Matins were finished and the work of God completed, Seven lamps light spontaneously: and the seven lamps which always used to burn in the same oratory were extinguished; in the morning, when the same Sisters entered the same church for prayer, they saw all the lamps burning which they had previously left extinguished. Whence it happened that this miracle was spread throughout that entire region: and the fame of the virtues of the handmaid of Christ Gertrude went out, so that all who were far or near, coming there to the tomb of the Virgin of God, sought a remedy for their souls and bodies alike: and with God's help all The sick are healed: who sought help there with love of the divinity returned thence sound and unharmed.

[15] There was a certain man in those neighboring places whose wife had become blind. Then her husband brought her to where the holy Virgin rested, to the aforesaid monastery of Nivelles. When, however, they had entered the church and she had stood under one lamp, suddenly that candle was poured out A blind woman is illuminated: where she stood beneath, and it poured upon the cloak with which she was clothed. All who were there and saw this miracle, taking some of the drop, anointed her eyes, and immediately the eyes of the woman who had been blind were illuminated. On the next day she was strengthened in faith and hope in the virtues of the holy Virgin Gertrude, and she returned home healthy with joy. Since it is sufficiently long to enumerate in order and treat thoroughly all the benefits which God daily bestows through her, because of his mercy, on all who take refuge there and seek from her the cause of their salvation, we have touched upon a few of many, how all who come from the surrounding area, who invoke her name with true faith, merit to return thence unharmed by her holy prayers, from whatever tribulation they are oppressed.

[16] At another time also, when robbers had seized a certain boy, they bound him, wishing to sell him into captivity outside his homeland. A captive is freed: When he had long been held fast in bonds, remembering with confidence the name of S. Gertrude, and begging her to deign to bestow help upon him; immediately the bonds fell from his hands by which he had been tied: and he began to run to free himself. Those men, however, who had held him bound, likewise began to run after him to seize him, and they were unable to. And so the boy was freed from the hand of the robbers and his enemies through the help of S. Gertrude.

[17] Again, however, afterward at another time a certain man was found in great crimes, so that his Lord ordered him to be seized and bound in chains. Then that wretch, placed in distress Another detained in prison for crimes. and terrified by excessive fear, because all who were present had no hope of the length of his life, he who was bound was strengthened in hope, beseeching the holy Virgin of Christ Gertrude to help him in his misery: and immediately and at that very time the iron bonds by which he was bound were broken, and he himself carried them to the monastery of Nivelles: and he found all the gates of the monastery and the doors of the churches open, and he reached the holy bed itself, and there he was freed through the power of the holy Virgin Gertrude.

[18] In the thirty-third year, however, after the death

of Blessed Gertrude, at the Lord's inspiration, it came into the heart of her sister, named Begga, that she wished to build a monastery for herself. Afterward, indeed, in such spiritual devotion she came to the aforesaid monastery of Nivelles, S. Begga, about to build a monastery, comes to Nivelles, and asking the aforesaid Abbess and at the same time the entire congregation to give her some assistance of a spiritual nature, from which she might have the beginning of her devotion in her greatest need. The whole congregation received her petition with the most loving spirit, which she had requested: and they gave her Relics and books of the holy Scriptures. She receives nuns with books, relics, Similarly they gave her in the holy habit elder spiritual Sisters, who could teach that same monastery the discipline of the regular life and the norm of religion, as was fitting for the beginning of such a work. And from that bed in which S. Gertrude her sister had migrated to Christ, they gave her a part. Then the most Christian Matron, having received all these things And a part of the bed famous there for miracles. which pertained to the reverence of religion, carried all these things with her with honor and reverence to her monastery, filled with great joy and exultation. When, however, they had approached the monastery where they were heading, they raised their voices with canticles and sang praises to the Lord: and they carried the Relics and the holy bed which they had brought with them, and placed it beside the altar of S. Genevieve the Virgin. Who among men, however, could explain in words how many are daily cleansed there from demons, how many sick are cured? For from whatever tribulation they cry there to the Lord, they return freed. She dies. In the second year, however, when all things were completed and well arranged, that Matron migrated to the Lord.

[19] Not many days later, however, a certain religious woman came to the same monastery, born of a noble family, whose name was Adula, truly a handmaid of Christ in all things, chaste in habit, Religious in humility, in charity unfeigned, Adula, a noble matron, generous in almsgiving to the elderly and poor, hospitable to the needy and pilgrims. But she had a doubt whether the Lord had deigned to show such great signs and miracles through the merit of Blessed Gertrude or not. Whence it happened that a contention arose from this, yet as if in jest, between the aforesaid matron and one handmaid of God residing there in the monastery. On a certain day, however, the Matron asked her, saying: On what day was the feast of S. Gertrude. She, however, answering said: The fifth week in Lent, on a Friday. And she said: Far be it from me that for this solemnity I should wish to increase anything beyond the accustomed measure of our service toward a feast. Less devoted to the veneration of S. Gertrude, That maiden, however, answering said: If Blessed Gertrude can obtain anything from the Lord, she will make you on that same day, willing or unwilling, perform the charity of divine religion. When, however, that day approached, then all who had assembled there for this solemnity, whether men or women, monks and virgins of Christ, celebrated that day with honor and reverence. And after the solemnity of the Masses was completed, they then took food and drink, rejoicing with thanksgiving, from all the foods which it was lawful to eat during the Lenten season; but the Matron alone did not eat on that day. She had, however, a little son whom she loved very tenderly. The infant came and asked her permission to play. She said to him: Do what you wish. The infant, however, was playing and running here and there: and suddenly by chance it happened that he fell into a fountain which was there. And he lay there for so long She is punished by the drowning of her son, until the Sisters rose from the table filled with joy, happy and well refreshed. One of the Sisters, however, came and said: Do you know that the son of that Matron is dead? They therefore asked her who had killed him. She replied: He fell into the fountain and was drowned there. Then that nun, who before had been contending with the Matron about the miracles of S. Gertrude, cried out with a loud voice and said: S. Gertrude, you did this on account of her, because the mother of this infant did not wish to believe in your miracles, which the Lord has wrought through you. And she said again: I beseech your holiness, Gertrude, Virgin of Christ, and through our Lord Jesus Christ I adjure you, that as you are able to obtain from the Lord, so may you deign to resuscitate him. And she began to go quickly to fetch the infant. When, however, she was going, his mother met her. And she said: What are you doing, Sister? And she, answering a third time with an oath, said: What I am doing, you also do likewise. In truth believe, because at this same hour S. Gertrude will restore your son to you alive. When he was resuscitated, She then took the infant and placed him beside the bed of Blessed Gertrude. Immediately in a wondrous manner, suddenly, as they looked on, the infant who had previously been dead arose. From that day, moreover, the aforesaid Matron began to believe in the miracles of S. Gertrude. At that same hour, summoning her entire household, she afterward fulfilled what she had previously denied regarding the charitable feast. And on the next day she celebrated Mass in honor of Gertrude, the Virgin of Christ, She is most favorably disposed. and had a feast with all the Sisters. The infant, however, without any injury served them, and with his own hands offered drink to each one in order. Therefore the aforesaid Matron most beautifully adorned that holy bed, encircled on all sides with gold and precious gems. And lest this perhaps seem incredible to anyone, I call God as witness that what I saw with my own eyes and learned through reliable witnesses, this I have written. Now, however, let enough have been said about her virtues and miracles: yet we have not been able to set forth in order the whole of what the Lord daily deigns to work in her name. Let us therefore now pray the Lord that through the prayers of his Virgin S. Gertrude he may deign to help us, to whom is honor, power, dominion, and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

In the year 674 on November 23, as is established from the above.

That was the year 696 or the following.

In our copy it is added: in the veneration of Blessed Gertrude.

Likewise: Crosses.

We gave the Life of S. Genevieve the Virgin on January 3.

Around the year 698. Her birthday is December 17.

Here ends the Life published from the Louvain codex by Geldolph van Ryckel.

Adela, daughter of Dagobert II At that time flourished Adela or Adula, sister of S. Irmina, daughter of Dagobert II, about whom we treated in book 2 of the three Dagoberts, chapter 14.

Here we think it should read the Second week, and easily from the Roman numeral II the number V is produced, and it would be the year 702, in which with lunar cycle 19, solar cycle II, dominical letter A, these things agree, or at least let it be read Thursday not Friday, which would be the year 701.

The manuscript of the Queen of Sweden: The Sisters had made a custom that on the day of the feast itself, for the sake of veneration, they would break the fast. When she understood this, she said: Far be it, lest in any way the observance of the fast be broken by me for this solemnity.

The same manuscript: The aforesaid matron on that same day extended the fast in her usual manner.

The son of the Adela indicated by us was Alberic, father of S. Gregory of Utrecht, because he presided over that See in the capacity of Bishop after the murder of S. Boniface, killed in the year 754.

The same manuscript of the Queen of Sweden: Immediately in the veneration of S. Gertrude she broke her fast.

APPENDIX I

A blind and crippled maiden healed.

[1] Nor should this be passed over in silence, which the Lord, at the praise and glory of his name, in the times of the Abbess Eggeburg, in the eighth year of her governance, at the Kalends of September, deigned to work through the merits of the holy Virgin. There was a certain maiden in the district of Winioen, where Valericus rests, in the maritime parts, named Adelberga, A maiden born blind who reached the light of this world without the light of her eyes. In the twenty-second year of her age, however, the appearance of a certain nun clothed in a white pallium appeared to her in a vision and admonished her with these words: Maiden, hasten and go to the tomb of the holy Virgin Gertrude, which is known to be in the monastery of Nivelles, and there you will merit the light of your eyes. Admonished in a vision When this vision had appeared to her a third time, she reported all these things to her mother. She, however, could in no way believe that such a vision had been manifested to her. The aforesaid maiden, however, went sorrowfully to a certain Priest of God and told him the whole truth of the matter. He, strengthening her in the Lord, spoke to her thus: Do not doubt, he said, but go as you have been commanded, for I believe that you will be healed through her merits. Then the aforesaid maiden, strengthened by his words, took up the journey and traveling for a whole month, she came into the parts of the district of Brachatensis, to the monastery called Lothusa. On that very night the venerable Virgin appeared to her again, saying to her: Having set out for Nivelles. Hasten: for without doubt you will recover your health there. She, hastening very quickly, reached the aforesaid monastery. And when she had entered the oratory of Blessed Peter, where the venerable Virgin rests in the body, and had prostrated herself in prayer; suddenly afflicted with great anguish from the excess of pain, she began to tear out the hairs of her head. For the skin covering the light of her eyes was being torn, and blood began to flow like a shower of tears. She is illuminated. All who were present, however, saw the blood flowing from her eyes, and so gradually she received the light of her eyes: and thus almighty God, through the merits of the prayers of the holy Virgin, gave to the same maiden the light which she had not received at birth.

[2] But neither should this be covered in silence, which the Lord there deigned to work through the merits of the holy Virgin in the times of the Emperor Charles, in the fifteenth year of his reign, in the one hundred and twenty-seventh year after the death of the holy Virgin. There was a certain little maiden in the Ripuarian district, feeble in every part of her limbs and destitute of all resources. It happened, however, that she was presented to the sight of Queen Hildegard, so that she might bestow her alms upon her: who, moved by mercy over her, commanded her to be brought to the palace, so that she might be nourished there by the mercy of her generosity, which was also done. After some time, however, she commanded her to be brought to the monastery of Nivelles, and there to be sustained by her alms for the days of her life. And while she was staying there, on the very vigil of the Epiphany, with all the Sisters going to the nocturnal office, the aforesaid maiden remained alone in her little bed: and behold she beholds the blessed Virgin entering the chamber in which she was staying, bearing in her hand a candle of wondrous whiteness and splendor, from whose light the entire cell was illuminated:

then she said to her: Why do you seem unable to rest at all? And she replied: I cannot, Lady. Then she, smiling, said: Tell the Sisters that I, Gertrude, have appeared to you: if, however, they do not wish to believe you, tomorrow before the third hour of the day I will give you a sign which they will entirely believe. And saying these things she departed. At dawn, however, reporting these things, she had herself carried into the house in which the Virgin of Christ had been nurtured. When they had washed her and clothed her in garments, she suddenly looked back and saw again the holy Virgin standing before her: and as she gazed upon her, the bonds of her hands and feet were loosed, and immediately the maiden, raising herself, stood upon her feet, and she saw the blessed Virgin going out and standing with the candle in the portico which is dedicated in honor of S. Agatha, where the Virgin of Christ herself, departing from the world, sought the heavenly realm. And when the aforesaid maiden was standing in that same place on her feet and crying out that she saw something, a certain one of the Sisters who was watching her said to her: What did you see, daughter? She said: I behold the Lady Gertrude holding a white candle in her hand. Then, having taken the maiden's hand, she led her into the church of Blessed Mary and placed her before the seat in which the Virgin of Christ was accustomed to sit. And when for a third time she cried out that she saw the holy Virgin, the entire congregation assembled for such a spectacle, and they found the maiden standing and glorifying God. Then the entire congregation, praising and glorifying God, led her to the basilica of Blessed Peter, to the tomb of the holy Virgin, and she, going with all of them, glorified God for the health given to her, and thus she remained in the health given to her all the days of her life. Amen.

S. Valericus is venerated on the Kalends of April, from whom the town of S. Valery is named, near the mouth of the river Somme, in the French Pays de Vimeu.

The manuscript of the Queen of Sweden reads: clothed in a white cloak.

Our manuscript reads Brachbantensem; the longer Life reads Brachbatensem. Concerning the ancient limits of Brabant, consult what was said in the Life of Blessed Pippin.

Lothusa, by others Lutosa; in the manuscript of the Queen of Sweden, Chludusa, commonly Leuze in modern Hainault. Concerning the monastery built there by S. Amandus, we treated in his Life, section 6.

Rather the thirty-eighth. Namely from the year 664 to 782, which was the fifteenth year of the reign of Charlemagne; and Hildegard died in the year 783.

Otherwise Ripuarian, whose metropolis is Cologne, as has been said frequently elsewhere.

APPENDIX II

Relics examined. Miracles.

[1] Let all know that in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1292, on the Wednesday before the Division of the Apostles, namely on the day of the holy Martyrs Kilian and his companions, they inspected the Relics of the most blessed Virgin Gertrude in her bier, at the command and ordinance of the chapter of Nivelles: the Lady Elizabeth de Birbac, Abbess, Emma de Talour, Provost, The Relics of S. Gertrude displayed. Sibilia de Jace, James de S. Syrus, John de Valerius, and Master Thierry de Ulm, Priests, Walter de Poys, Scholastic, and other Canons male and female of Nivelles: and they found the head and jawbones with teeth, only three excepted, and the entire body through the bones of the Virgin. And many from the Chapter and other persons from outside saw the aforesaid Relics on the said day and in the year noted above: at which innumerable miracles are performed to this day, of which it will suffice to narrate a few here.

[2] There was a certain man in the territory of Brabant, conspicuous for nobility, named Odelardus: who, having languished for a long span of years, infected with leprosy according to some, it happened that on a certain day he asked for a drink from his daughter, named Berlendis. She immediately arose, washed a cup, poured the drink quickly, and brought it to her father: By the father of S. Berlendis who drank and returned the cup to her. She, being thirsty and refusing to drink after her father, poured out the drink: she washed the cup again, poured in the drink, and thus drank. The father, seeing this, said no word to her: but silently bore it with remarkable indignation: summoning servants, he ordered a chariot to be prepared for him and he mounted it. Estates offered He went to Nivelles and to the most holy Gertrude delivered whatever he had in estates, with a clod of earth and a branch and a knife with a white handle: and he deprived his daughter of all right of inheritance. In that same delivery, however, a stupendous thing happened: for by the nod of the supreme God the shrine in which the holy Virgin lay opened itself: They are accepted by a hand extended from the sepulcher: and the lifeless body extended its hand: and before the eyes of all it received the branch with the clod and knife from the man's hand inside the shrine, and as it had been closed and sealed before, it remained. Then a clamor was raised to heaven, and the Creator of all was praised: and his handmaid S. Gertrude, through whose merits so unexpected and so joyful a miracle occurred, was venerated with the greatest devotion. Berlendis, however, the aforesaid, when she saw herself deprived of her paternal inheritance, afterward came to the monastery of Morselle, built in honor of S. Gudula the Virgin, for the sake of conversion: and she was devoutly received by the Sisters of that place: but she lived more devoutly, as the book of her life clearly teaches, and she was made a Saint. The aforesaid clod is also seen to this day in the church of Nivelles.

[3] Around the year of the Lord 1244 a certain maiden of five years or thereabouts was dwelling at Nivelles in the convent of Beguines at S. Syrus, named Maria, surnamed Lebaylhet: A five-year-old girl submerged, who, having seized a water jug without anyone's knowledge, went at a certain time to a stone fountain, deep and profound. When she had filled it with water, thinking to lift it, she fell into the well and remained there all that day and night until the first hour of the following day. When they came to the prayer which was performed by the common convent, it was first discovered that the aforesaid Maria was missing. When her companions were questioned and nothing certain was known about her; at last one of the congregation was found who said she had seen Maria going the preceding day with a jug to draw water. When this was discovered, all were disturbed and terrified, sending some to every watery and suspicious place, Found the next day, if perhaps they could find even a trace of her there. When at last they came to the aforesaid fountain, they found her precipitously submerged in it: and returning they announced the sad crime to all, and there was indeed great weeping there. Nevertheless, having hope in God and his glorious Spouse, namely Blessed Gertrude, they decreed that she should be drawn from the well and carried to her church, And brought to the altar of S. Gertrude, and placed upon the altar, those who seemed the most eminent: and together with the Canonesses and Canons of the said Church they earnestly begged the mercy of Christ and of his Spouse, She is resuscitated: through whose intercession very many miracles had shone in the same church for the salvation of the faithful, that they might also merit to receive her alive and resuscitated. Without delay, behold, the dead maiden revives: and her people received her safe and sound from the altar, and returned immense praises to God and the most blessed Gertrude: through whose merits they did not doubt that they had recovered her resuscitated. At which time, to declare so evident a miracle, all the bells are rung. When this was heard, the Lord Robert, Bishop of Liege, who was then present, and having learned what had happened, came personally to the church; and praised the wonders of God and of his Spouse for the miracle performed. [On account of this miracle a solemn procession was instituted annually on August 4:] And because the aforesaid city pertained to his diocese, he ordained that every year on that day on which this miracle occurred, namely the day before the Nones of August, a general procession should be held there, and a Mass in honor of God and the most holy Gertrude should be solemnly sung in memory of so great a prodigy, granting by his ordinary authority to all and each who devoutly attended the aforesaid Mass and procession forty days of Indulgences. The aforesaid maiden, however, after she had grown up, visited the holy places in the city of Rome: and afterward returning, she humbly served several Canonesses in the aforesaid church. Moreover, the oft-mentioned miracle is recited every year on the above-mentioned day in the same church to the people: for which and all the other things which the Divine mercy has deigned to display in the same place for the glory of his Spouse, the Te Deum laudamus is then solemnly sung by the Clergy.

[4] In more recent times, namely in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1407, on the 21st day of June, another miracle happened in the same city, concerning a certain other Maria Nicolas de Carnispriuio, a maidservant. [Another maidservant who fell into a well, invoking S. Gertrude, is preserved unharmed.] When she had fallen at the first hour of the aforesaid day into a certain well; she remained there still alive around the third hour, for a space of nearly two hours: during which time she did not cease to cry out to God and the holy Virgin Gertrude, that they might deign to help her in this crisis. It happened meanwhile that her mistress, the wife of the aforesaid man, chanced to come by: and heard her calling out and invoking as we described, and having discovered the time she had spent in the well, she conjectured that S. Gertrude had sustained and kept alive the maidservant invoking her for so long, as was indeed the truth of the matter. She therefore summoned two men who might be witnesses of so great a miracle, namely Bernard Cruce and Adam Copijn: who, entering the well with the aid of a ladder, drew her out entirely cold and almost bloodless from the iciness of the water itself: the depth of the water was the length of two men: and likewise the height of the well above the water was of nearly the same measure. On the following day at dawn she was led by the household to the church of S. Gertrude: and they narrated to the Canonesses and Canons of the same college the whole course of events. They, therefore, having held mature deliberation, published the miracle to the people: and solemnly sang the Te Deum laudamus.

[5] There are indeed also many other and almost innumerable miracles which the Lord deigns to display to this day at the Relics of his Spouse: to whom is glory for ever.

Rather the next day should be read, because in the said bissextile year 1292 with dominical letters FE, July 9 falls on a Wednesday.

These things are said somewhat more fully in the Life of S. Berlendis on February 3, chapter 1, where individual points are explained.

Robert, from Bishop of Langres, was created Bishop of Liege in the year 1240; he died on October 16, in the year 1246.

DISSERTATION ON S. GERTRUDE

Who is venerated in Franconia.

Gertrude, Virgin, Abbess of Nivelles in Brabant (Saint)

Section I. The fabricated flight of S. Gertrude of Nivelles, or of another daughter of Pippin of Herstal, into Franconia.

[1] The author of the longer Life of S. Gertrude, whom we said above seems to have lived in the eleventh or twelfth century, with his flourishing style, in which he greatly glories, thus describes the flight of S. Gertrude of Nivelles in book 2. The most wicked adversary, grieving that he had been dashed with such great ruin under the victorious maiden, dared by more subtle artifice to enter upon a second battle against her. And what wonder if, with renewed strength,

he presumed to wage a second war against the Virgin: S. Gertrude is feigned to have fled into Franconia to avoid marriage. who did not shrink from raising himself against his own Creator with three temptations. And so, after a brief interval, he cast such a suspicion into the venerable Pippin, her father, that he believed the purpose of preserving virginity to be of childish levity, not of divine inspiration: he therefore wished to join her in marriage to a young man who sought her. Blessed Virgin Gertrude, hidden by her pious mother, concealed herself as long as she could from the sight of her father: but when at last she was betrayed and could no longer be hidden, by the counsel of her same mother she fled secretly with two handmaids to Upper Germany, which is now called Franconia, to a certain place called Karlburg, which had been, they say, a castle of Charles, the Duke of that land. Which estate the most religious woman Itta, her mother, possessed by hereditary right of her family: to whom it had come through the succession of a certain Geilana, her mother, who was the wife of Carloman of whom above. There therefore the blessed maiden, free from the annoyance of a suitor, spent some years serving God in prayer and abstinence, until, her father Pippin dying, she returned to the Nivelles monastery. We have put this from the longer Life, or rather from the Leyden Legend, into the words of our Commentary, so that we might briefly dispose of the fabrication. And first, this is observed to disagree with the first and more ancient Life, whose author expressly says that the maiden spurned the suitor offered by King Dagobert, not her father: and from that day her parents knew by what King she had been loved: then that after fourteen years, namely from birth, with the father dead, the mother, admonished by S. Amandus, built a monastery, and Gertrude received the veil. From which clearly follows that there was no place for a flight from a suitor in the period between the banquet (at which the maiden was about ten years old) and the construction of the monastery, which the father who died four years later could not have impeded.

[2] But it would not be enough that this fiction should be refuted from genuine records alone: if there were not another external proof against it drawn from an irrefragable testimony, which demonstrates the entire story to be transferred from another Gertrude, a real or supposed daughter or granddaughter of Pippin of Herstal, to the Gertrude of Nivelles. There existed at Karlburg, whose situation at the confluence of the rivers Main and Wern the learned will know, a monastery of Virgins: whose foundress was a certain Gertrude, called in the local documents the daughter of Pippin and Plectrude. This Pippin, however, is the one surnamed of Herstal, great-grandson of Blessed Pippin father of our Gertrude: which succession of name and family both could, and is shown to have done so in fact, given occasion to those who wished to aggrandize the fame of the younger Gertrude by linking her to the more ancient and more celebrated one.

[3] This Gertrude, whom the people of Karlburg claim as theirs, was perhaps (as we are inclined to believe, if she was certainly of Pippin's family) the daughter of Drogo, whom this father Pippin begot from his wife Plectrude. For this Drogo married Adaltrudis of Alsace, and is believed to have had by her a son named Hugo, whom Charles Martel put to death, and perhaps also daughters: among whom Gertrude could have been, who being called the granddaughter of Pippin and Plectrude was easily turned into a daughter by those writers who condensed many generations of the same family into one. Others, however, deny she was of Pippin's blood at all, and derive her from Charles, Duke of the Franks, whose castle Karlburg was. We leave this matter to the local antiquaries to settle: it suffices for us to have shown that the story of the flight into Franconia, attached to S. Gertrude of Nivelles, is a demonstrable fabrication, and that the Gertrude of Karlburg, whoever she was, is a distinct person.

Section II. What is known of the Gertrude of Karlburg.

[4] The Gertrude of Karlburg is venerated at that place on March 17, the same day as S. Gertrude of Nivelles: which coincidence of feast day doubtless contributed to the confusion of the two. Her monastery, however, was transferred in the year 752 by S. Burkard, the first Bishop of Wurzburg, from Karlburg to Wurzburg itself, where it still exists under the invocation of S. Mary on the Hill. Local traditions assert that she lived a holy life and died in the odor of sanctity: but no ancient Life exists, and what is told of her depends entirely on the interpolated Life of S. Gertrude of Nivelles, from which the Franconian episodes were extracted and given a local habitation. We therefore abstain from giving any proper Acts of this Gertrude, since we have nothing genuine to offer: and we warn the reader that whatever he may find in local calendars and histories about a flight of S. Gertrude to Franconia is to be referred not to the Nivelles Gertrude but to this local saint, whose real history is almost entirely unknown.

Gertrude; your sister, O great Charles of old. If you are wise, you will vigorously imitate her in upright deeds. Learn to follow: and having made your vows to her, proceed, traveler.

Behold and imitate these footsteps of the Lady Gertrude, O reader, impressed by the assiduity of prayer, and divinely preserved for so many centuries as an example of piety for posterity. Thus far those things there. There was appended, and afterward separately transmitted, a brief description of memorable things which God worked through his handmaid the holy Gertrude. In which all things are applied to Charlemagne the Emperor as her brother, and the rest is expressed thus.

[5] In the year from the birth of Christ 794, Charles surnamed the Great, King of the Franks and afterward Emperor of the Romans, laid the foundations of the Neustadt monastery and endowed it with royal liberality: whose full sister was S. Gertrude... who at Karlburg, so named by Charlemagne... caused a church to be built at immense expense: at which time her brother began to build the Neustadt monastery: The Neustadt monastery begun by him, she completes: but hindered by the multitude of the affairs of the Empire, he entrusted the care of assistance to his sister. Therefore she very frequently traveled from Karlburg to Neustadt, both for the sake of the building and also so that she might more conveniently devote herself to prayers and divine contemplations and the embraces of her immortal Spouse. For she was supremely attached to the hill adjacent to the monastery, where she was accustomed to offer her prayers to God: in whose honor and that of S. Michael the Archangel she erected a church there: She founds a church of S. Michael before whose choir in the open air the traces of the devotion practiced by her there are seen to this very day. For her elbows, knees, and feet are impressed there in the earth, and they fit anyone, both in length and in size, who inserts and applies himself to them out of devotion. Traces left to this day: These, which is worthy of admiration, cannot be destroyed by any injuries of the weather (for they are in the open air and surrounded on all sides by very thick growth): and the cavities produce not even the smallest blade of grass, so to speak. It is added that neither the malice of times nor of men has been able to destroy them. For a certain nobleman of a well-known family, whose coat of arms I willingly pass over for the sake of honor, with his servant twice destroyed the same traces by night: but they were always found in the morning as they had been before. When, however, he attempted the same a third time, such a force of winds was stirred up, the sky being otherwise clear and calm, that he feared he was about to be snatched away by evil spirits. Therefore, abandoning his digging tools, he suddenly sought safety by flight, which he himself afterward confessed. There exists moreover still a fountain on the road by which one travels from Karlburg to Neustadt, She produces a fountain: situated between two villages in the forest next to the Zeller ditch, obtained by the prayers and merits of S. Gertrude. For when at one time she was pressed by thirst on the road and was scratching the ground on which she leaned, a spring of water burst forth, which to this very day does not cease to flow and takes its name from S. Gertrude. Certain trustworthy men also affirm that the part of the road which leads from Karlburg to Neustadt, which the Lady Gertrude trod with her sacred feet, is distinguished from the rest of the road: namely, when the latter dries out, the former is accustomed to be green, and vice versa. Finally, in the said monastery the pallium itself is preserved, on whose edges some letters are interwoven in gold, which if construed mean this: Berbertha ordered me to be made for the honor and adornment of her daughter. Those in labor are helped by her pallium: While by sight the praise due to our merit may be present. If women suffering difficult births use this pallium, through the intercession of the Lady Gertrude they are freed from pains and happily bear their offspring. In another copy these things are added: Charles, surnamed the Great, King of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans, Holy, Happy, Augustus, laid the foundations of the present monastery and endowed it with royal liberality in the year from the birth of Christ 794. The Lady Gertrude, full sister of the Emperor Charles, increased it with liberality in the Christian year 812. She endowed the monastery in the year 812 Louis the First, called the Pious, son of Charles, and likewise the most happy Emperor of Germany, strengthened and enlarged the foundations in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 823. There then followed this title: Relics of S. Gertrude, and these things were added. In the village of Karlburg there was formerly a monastery, Her relics at Karlburg, now, however, utterly destroyed. In the church there is seen first a bandage of S. Gertrude; second, some of her bones; third, a fragment of the flask in which she is said to have brought drink to the Brothers of Neustadt; fourth, the mirror of S. Gertrude, on whose back is painted the holy Virgin carrying Christ taken down from the Cross in her bosom. On the wall of the Neustadt monastery is seen an image of the Lady Gertrude supporting a church with her hand, with a prostrate Benedictine Religious, At Neustadt an ancient image, with these words inscribed: Pray for me, S. Gertrude, foundress. The rest is read in a single codex.

[6] In the year 1525, on Friday after the Sunday Misericordia Domini, the inhabitants of Steinfeld together with the other inhabitants in the territory and domain of Rottenfels entered the monastery of Neustadt with an armed force, It was plundered: and they plundered and devastated everything, and tore up nearly all the books and carried off all the moveable goods: and afterward the church together with its ornaments and furnishings was devastated, and all the altars were violated, and the venerable Relics of the Saints were scattered, and the images destroyed. The crown, however, hanging in the middle of the church, which S. Charlemagne, the founder of the aforesaid monastery, had caused to be made, was taken away and torn apart, and all the windows together with their shutters were destroyed and carried off. S. Gertrude, moreover, had endowed the oft-mentioned monastery with two villages, Zell and Steinfeld, Two villages given as endowment: a copy of whose endowment letters still exists. It is subscribed that this was submitted from the manuscript of Brother Conrad Lieb, afterward Abbot until the year 1554. Thus far the documents chiefly submitted from the Neustadt monastery: against which it can be objected that in the Sanmarthani and other more accurate writers of the genealogy of Kings, three daughters of King Pippin are assigned: Rothaid, Adelaide, and Gisela. So we grant, and we note that only the first two are known, because Paul Warnefrid in his Chronicle of the Bishops of Metz asserts that two daughters of King Pippin were buried in the oratory of Blessed Arnulf, How a daughter of King Pippin? of whom one was called Rothaid and the other Adela: meanwhile Warnefrid does not deny that he had other daughters. Pope Paul I mentions Gisela in letter 5 to her father Pippin, and Pope Stephen III in his letter to the brothers Charlemagne and Carloman says she was sought by the Emperor Constantine for his son's marriage, and advises against her being given as wife to the son of Desiderius, King of the Lombards. The people of Soissons report that she died as Abbess in their monastery dedicated to S. Mary in the year 811 or 814. Why should not faith be given to both the ancient history and the tradition of the Church of Arras, according to which S. Itisberga was also a daughter of King Pippin and a sister of Charlemagne, as will be said on her birthday, May 21? Therefore, although she is less commonly known, the said Gertrude could have been a daughter of King Pippin and a sister of Charlemagne.

Otherwise Andreas Voit von Rieneck.

Otherwise "our."

Section III. Further inquiry about Gertrude the sister of Charlemagne, and her sacred veneration.

[7] What we have so far brought forward did not yet fully satisfy, since the seventeenth of March was assigned to her veneration, indeed (although we judged them wrongly intruded) the name of the mother Itta was repeated, and a flight from Gaul to Franconia was added, lest she be joined in marriage to the son of the Duke of the Austrasians: which we rejected above as fables. We therefore pressed by letter through Nicolas Lutz, Provincial of the Society of Jesus for the parts of the Upper Rhine, so that Johann Gamans, an industrious man in the searching out of ancient monuments, The charter of foundation. might proceed from Aschaffenburg, where he resides, to the Neustadt monastery, not far distant. He went and submitted two documents to us: in the first is contained the foundation of the said monastery made by Charlemagne, with the appended donation of Gertrude: in the other, arguments of sacred veneration are brought forward, all of which we give here: and the charter of foundation begins thus.

In the name of the Lord, God almighty, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, Charles, by the favor of supreme Clemency, King of the Franks. Whatever we have erected for the benefit of churches or the peace of the servants of God; that, without doubt, with the Lord helping, we trust will profit us toward eternal blessedness. Therefore we wish it to be known to all our faithful, both present and future, what beginning the monastery had, which is called Rorlacha or Neustadt, which we built in the forest of Spessart around the river Main: so that where we first chose a special resting place for our hunting, on account of the pleasantness and sweetness of life, there afterward a worthy oratory for divine worship should be had: gathering there a multitude of servants of God, whom Bishop Burkard had brought from the English nation, and others from the surrounding area, who were hiding in solitudes and in the caves of the earth for the love of Christ: so that in our aforesaid resting place, like earthly cultivators, the more secretly they dwelt, the more freely they might be able to beseech God for the state of the whole kingdom and for our salvation. Over whom also we appointed Meingaudius as Abbot, at the request of our sweetest mother Bertrada: after whose death we grant to those monks, by the piety of our royal authority, the perpetual and free license and power of choosing an Abbot among themselves whenever necessary. We took, moreover, from our chapel Relics of S. Mary the perpetual Virgin, of Martin the Confessor of Christ, and of very many other Saints, which having been brought to the said place, we ordered the church to be consecrated in honor of our Savior and S. Mary his Mother by Lull the Archbishop and Willibald the Bishop, in our presence, on the eleventh day before the Kalends of September. As the endowment of which church, a part of the estate in the forest of Spessart, to be possessed perpetually by right of property without contradiction, we have granted by our royal authority. And with the boundaries of the donation broadly indicated, and that secured by the privilege of immunity, it is concluded thus. That this authority of our concession may be held more firmly, and be better observed through future times and more truly believed, we have confirmed it below with our own hand, and have ordered it to be sealed with the impression of our ring. The sign of the Lord Charles, most glorious King. Willisarius the Chancellor, in place of Lull the Archichaplain, I have verified it. Given in the month of May, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 794, Indiction 2, in the nineteenth year of the reign of King Charles in France, and the twelfth in Italy.

[8] Thus far the charter of foundation, into which toward the end the years of Christ and of the reign were rashly thrown in, plainly disagreeing among themselves and from the formula of subscriptions then customarily used: The corrected formula of the given charter. for which we think this or something similar was written: Given in the month of May, in the nineteenth year of our reign, unless 12 or another number should rather be substituted. Among the more authentic charters of these times which we have seen so far, we consider those which Nicholas Zillesius published in defense of the Imperial Abbey of S. Maximin, where to a related charter of Charlemagne these are subscribed: The sign of Charles, most glorious King. Rado reread it.

Given in the month of August, in the fortieth year of our reign: and the same formula there is in the charters of King Pippin and the Emperor Louis the Pious, of whom the former was the father and the latter the son of Charlemagne. But the charter which we have reported, if it is genuine in other respects, we think was written when the persons mentioned therein were still alive: of whom S. Willibald, Bishop of Eichstatt, born in the year 704, departed this life on July 7 of the year 781, as we have accurately deduced on February 7 in the Life of S. Richard his father, page 70. When he died, therefore, Charlemagne counted only the thirteenth year of his reign, which he had begun on October 9 of the year 768. Nor did Berta, or Bertrada, the mother of Charlemagne, long survive, having died on June 10 of the year 783. Lull himself also, the Archbishop of Mainz, who consecrated the church, and whose function in verifying the charter was supplied, is reported in the more ancient Annals to have died in the year 786, by others in the following year, when the nineteenth year of the reign was being counted. S. Burkard, Bishop of Wurzburg, survived until the year 791, and was then succeeded by Meingaudius, who at the request of Bertrada is said to have been appointed the first Abbot. All of which prove that the year from the Lord's Incarnation 794 was added by an unskilled chronologist, and that the genuine charter of Charlemagne does not exist on the original parchments. The other charter begins thus.

[10] In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Charles, by the favor of supreme Clemency, King of the Franks and Lombards and Patrician of the Romans. Donation made under the name of Gertrude. The Wisdom of God wished the holy Church to be fortified and protected by two swords, namely the spiritual and the material sword: wherefore with the material sword divinely bestowed upon us, as the Lord has granted, we do not cease to govern, defend, and honor it. Hence it is that by the present writings we make known to all who shall come after us, how the church built by us, namely called Neustadt or Rorlacha, at our request was endowed by our sister Gertrude with excellent estates and a very large household. For that same sister of ours, thirsting for the heavenly Spouse and leaving all the pomp of the world in mind and body, made the neighboring churches in the German parts the heirs of all that she possessed by hereditary right. The estates were named Steinfeld and Cella, separated by no more than one mile from our monastery. These, therefore, as we have said, at our request, together with the men and women dwelling therein, the parish with tithes, all for the reward of eternal life, she donated with her own hand upon the altar of the holy Mother of God Mary in our presence. Then the donations of others were added, and at last it is concluded thus: These things were done in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 813, Indiction 5, in the thirteenth year of our reign. The sign of Charles, the glorious King. These things were done in the church of Neustadt. In which conclusion the conjecture does not appear altogether absurd, but beyond the formula then customary, the year of Christ is indicated with a year not of the reign but of the Western Empire: for which, to mark the said year 813, the year of the reign should have been noted not as 13 but 46: and Indiction 5 does not pertain to that year either, but to the preceding one, also added by later persons. From all of which the scruple is not entirely removed that those words, by our sister Gertrude, and then, our sister, are not either entirely or in part intruded, in such great silence of the ancient writers. But we leave these matters to the judgment of others, concerning the veneration of S. Gertrude: and what pertains to the place already mentioned the reader will find in the appendix, provided the leaf lost through the carelessness of the typesetters is found in the meantime.