Rupert

ON SAINT RUPERT,

DUKE AT BINGEN IN THE DIOCESE OF MAINZ

AND B. BERTHA HIS MOTHER.

9TH CENT.

Rupert the Duke, at Bingen in the diocese of Mainz (S.)

Bertha his mother, at Bingen in the diocese of Mainz (B.)

G. H.

Bingium, or Binga, formerly also called Pingia, a town of Germany on the Rhine, where it receives the river Nahe, four leagues below Mainz, to whose city's Metropolitan Chapter for nearly two hundred years it obeys. From S. Rupert various ones called Rupert. Its neighboring places from the river Nahe called Nachgouve or the Nahe district, with the subject places is at length described by Marquard Freher in part 2 of the Palatine Origins, chapter 11. Of that dominion Duke once after his parents was S. Rupert, by some called Robert, or Ropert: from whom, says Freher, the name Rupert as of a certain ancestral Divine pleased many of the Palatines (for ten Ruperts in this family are numbered) before others. And there lives even now Rupert, brother of the Count Palatine of the Rhine. The life of this Saint, taught from a true vision, as in the Prologue she says, was described by S. Hildegard the Abbess, who as Trithemius writes in the Chronicle of Sponheim at the year 1148, constituted on the mountain of S. Disibod, divinely admonished, The Life written by S. Hildegard, with eighteen holy Virgins crossed over to Bingen, and built a monastery on the mountain across the river Nahe, beside the sepulchre of S. Rupert the Duke and Confessor, and as the same Trithemius in the Chronicle of Hirsau at the year 1150 adds, constructed a monastery for the sacred Virgins in that place, where S. Rupert the Duke, with his mother, Bertha by name, a holy woman, in the times of Louis the first Emperor, had a castle and dwelling. The same Trithemius in the book on Ecclesiastical Writers enumerates the works written by S. Hildegard, and among them the Life of S. Rupert the Confessor, with this beginning, For as in a true vision, but there were lacking to it the three or four preceding lines.

[2] That Life from a MS. codex of the library of the Society of Jesus of Mainz published John Busaeus, of the same Society, together with the Epistles of Hincmar Archbishop of Reims and the Constitutions of Charlemagne, at Mainz in the year 1602. The same Life Nicholas Serarius reprinted, published by Busaeus and Serarius. in book 2 of the Affairs of Mainz, chapter 25. The same illustrated in our manner we here give. S. Hildegard is venerated on September XXVII, inscribed in the Roman Martyrology: but her Visions we have, such as in her monastery of Bingen we ourselves saw written by her own hand and distinguished into three books, printed at Paris in the year 1513 and reprinted at Cologne in the year 1628: from which deservedly is absent the Prophecy under her name formerly forged against the mendicant Orders of the Preachers and Minors, and lately more calumniously fitted to our Society, of which we treated on the Life of S. Thomas Aquinas March VII in the Notes to Chapter IV. The Life of the same S. Rupert, but contracted, we found in a Utrecht MS. of the Church of S. Salvator, and in a MS. of the monastery of Rouge-Cloître of the Canons Regular near Brussels: Compendia in MSS. and published in German. which also into German translated Jacob Kobel, Secretary of the city of Oppenheim; and it, dedicated to Adelheid the Abbess of the monastery on the mountain of S. Rupert, he published at Oppenheim in the year 1524, adorned with excellent images.

[3] The sacred memory of S. Rupert the Confessor, Count Palatine, on this XV of May is inscribed in the said words in the MS. Florarium of the Saints. But Ropert Duke Palatine of the Rhine and Confessor, he is called by Greven the Carthusian of Cologne in the Auctarium of Usuard, Memory in the Calendars, printed under the note of the year 1515 and 1521, and by Canisius in the German Martyrology, and by Molanus in the additions to Usuard, by whom is added At Bingen. Ferrarius in the General Catalogue, At Bingen, he says, in upper Germany of S. Robert the Count. So also Robert him calls Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, who from the Life adds a long encomium. Gelenius in the Calendars of Cologne among other things writes these things: In ancient Bingen … rests S. Rupert, Relics at Cologne, Duke of Lorraine and Count Palatine, from whose Relics translated to Cologne in the year 1632, a joint from the hand, in the chapel of S. Margaret, bestows benefits of recovered soundness on the fevered. There seem then to have been the Relics of S. Hildegard as well as of S. Rupert on account of the Swedish wars translated to Cologne. For in the year 1624 a solemn procession at Cologne for gaining the Jubilee was held on the day of Pentecost, in which besides the Relics of the Cologne Churches there were carried about the heart of S. Hildegard still entire and her tongue, likewise the head of S. Rupert the Duke, still nearly everywhere clothed with flesh, as then to Antwerp wrote Francis vander Veken. We in the year 1660 were in the very monastery of S. Hildegard, and among her Relics venerated her heart still entire.

[4] The above-praised Serarius in chapter 36 asserts, that the Relics of S. Rupert were seen in the same monastery of Virgins still when he wrote in the year 1604, and adds; The body although dissolved, especially in the monastery of Bingen. yet is still almost covered with skin, especially the feet, one of which a silver shoe contains there; the other from the other shoe which remains is said to have taken and sent elsewhere by Cardinal Albert, who was Archbishop of Mainz from the year 1514 to the year 1545. But formerly when to that monastery S. Bernard had come, then, as Trithemius writes in the Chronicle of Hirsau at the year 1148, S. Hildegard gave to the man of God asking a particle of the Relics of S. Rupert Duke of the people of Bingen and Confessor; for which also he himself afterwards sent back to her some heads of Saints. some given to S. Bernard, These things were done on the mountain of S. Rupert in the presence of Meginhard Count of Sponheim, under whose temporal dominion the aforesaid monastery was constructed… There were present there with that Count Cuno Abbot of S. Disibod, and Bernhelm the first Abbot in Sponheim, with many other Clerics, monks and seculars. There then Bernhelm the aforesaid Abbot, through the medium of S. Bernard, at the instance of himself and of Count Meginhard, the right leg from the knee below even to the foot exclusively of the body of S. Rupert the Duke, entire with skin and flesh, from B. Hildegard and all her congregation of holy Virgins obtained, others carried to Sponheim, and with great reverence and honor to his monastery of Sponheim brought in: which even unto this day we have entire. These things Trithemius, who the same somewhat more briefly relates in the Chronicle of Sponheim, but at the year 1150.

[5] others at Munich in the Church of the Society of Jesus. Of this Saint the Ecclesiastical office is recited under a double rite at Munich in the college of the Society of Jesus, on account of the sacred Relics of the same, which there are preserved, namely the spine of the back or a great part of the same of eleven ounces, likewise another bone of 13 ounces. Another lesson there has: Of the spine of the back, a bone with flesh of eleven ounces. So to us wrote on the V of June in the year 1674 Simon Mair, Priest of the Society of Jesus and then at Munich Prefect of the Church, but afterwards his successor Maximus Ponzen sent to us an authentic testimony of various Relics of this Saint obtained, and others of S. Hildegard, nay also of Bertha his mother, and of S. Satyria Virgin and Martyr translated into Bavaria; of which to the Munich Society were given the before-indicated Relics. The very testimony after the Life entire we give. In all these things we recognize the singular benefit of the very Reverend Father Christopher Scorrer, who at Rome then Assistant of Germany and Vicar General fostered us with all humanity, and promoted our studies both there and in Bavaria and upper Germany, which both as Provincial and Visitor he ruled, as also several times the College of Munich.

[6] There seems here to be added to the memory of Bertha the mother of S. Rupert, that below in the Life, in the same manner as Robert is called Blessed, so also Bertha is always called Blessed, The sanctity of B. Bertha the mother. who is deposited in the sepulchre of her son and at the same time her Relics and those of B. Rupert rest, and below in the Instrument she is equally honored with the title of Saint as her son, and two bones of S. Bertha the mother were with the Relics of others translated: a holy woman Trithemius calls her: and in the German Life of her son, equally as he, she is depicted with rays already from the year 1524. Finally Arthur du Monstier in the Sacred Gynaeceum on this very

day celebrates S. Bertha with due encomium.

LIFE

written by S. Hildegard the Abbess.

Rupert the Duke, at Bingen in the diocese of Mainz (S.)

Bertha his mother, at Bingen in the diocese of Mainz (B.)

BHL Number: 7388

BY S. HILDEGARD.

CHAPTER I.

The marriage and widowhood of B. Bertha. The pious boyhood of S. Rupert: his affection toward the poor.

[1] Blessed Robert God in his infancy wholly suffused with His grace, and led to a good end; who famous in race and the riches of the age, by the liberality of God's benediction, stood forth dear to God. ^a For, as in a true vision I see, our blessed Patron Robert, The Life written from a revelation, bereft of his father, living with his mother in this place, and sweating in good works, and serving God in chastity, humility and sanctity, with frail and temporal things purchased eternal rewards. For as the living light in a true vision showed me and taught me, so of him I will speak. Wherever the opinion of true sanctity was, there sanctity could stand and remain long: but wherever true sanctity was not, there falsehood could not endure long. But in Blessed Robert true sanctity was, as the Divine majesty openly showed, when me, with certain sisters with me, on the mountain of S. Rupert, to the place of his Relics by a great miracle of great visions it translated, as to all beholding and wishing to know openly appears.

[2] The father therefore of the mother of B. Robert, sprung from ^b Lorraine, was there a Prince, and having a great breadth of estates and riches, in the region of his birth and in others placed round about, and about the streams of the Rhine at Bingen, was held great and named among the Princes of the age. Who being truly Catholic, in the times of the Emperor Charles the Great flourished; and a maiden, namely the mother of blessed Bertha, the mother Bertha, from far regions sprung in great riches, joined to himself in marriage. From whom when he had a daughter, namely the mother of B. Robert; her grown up to a pagan and a certain tyrant, yet noble and a Duke according to the dignity of the age, called Roboldus, since still pagans and Christians on account of the rudiment of the true faith dwelt together, with the glory of marriage he solemnly associated; and his estates, which about the Rhine at Bingen he had, with the dowry of the Bingen dominion, to that daughter of his conferred for a dowry; that on account of the elegance of his race, and the amplitude of his estates, the same Roboldus to the Christian name could be compelled: which yet profited nothing. Who when with her for some time he had lived laudably, afterwards, seeing her honorable morals, took it gravely; and joining himself to strange women, yet did not desert her after the manner of marriage, but bearing the tyranny of an incredulous mind, loved not baptism. Whence the blessed woman this was greatly tortured in her heart, married to Roboldus, a pagan and an adulterer, vowing to God, that if she were freed from him, she would not be associated to the bed of another man: and for this also with sighs, tears, prayers and alms offering to God the sacrifice of praise she said: O! o! when shall I be freed from the occupation of this world, which to my soul and my body is a bitter prison? But of the benevolence of B. Bertha rather, than of her sanctity let us speak, she bears to him S. Robert. that glory in the highest be to God, and on earth peace to men of good will. For she at length conceived a son and bore him, and if it were lawful to say, in swaddling clothes, as the blessed Mother of God Mary her son, wrapped him. Whose father, with very great glory of the age, as is aforesaid, powerful, on that mountain, which is called Lubun, had a very fortified castle, and through all that province, Her husband being slain a widow, almost to the city of Mainz, held the Duchy. And when the blessed infant Robert was three years old, his father in great battles against the Christians fighting, was slain, perished before God and men, and B. Bertha his wife remained a widow.

[3] Who seeing herself loosed from the bond of her husband and from the solicitude of the age, deserted the aforesaid castle, and to another place, namely situated above the Nahe (in which now her Relics and those of B. Robert rest) betook herself, in a church built by herself piously living, and there built a church. The preciousness also and brightness of garments she cast off, nor any further attended to the dignity of her race and her riches: but with a vile and coarse garment as it were a sack clothed, and girt with a cincture, henceforth in the continence of widowhood, as she had long desired, devout to God she served. Many also perfect and certain other good men she gathered to herself, and in the aforesaid place remained; and there macerating herself with vigils and fasts, with prayers also and alms daily ministering to God, she fortified her son by good example in sanctity: since she feared, that by his kindred and friends he might be moved to the pleasure of the world; and, lest this should happen, day and night she commended him to God. But yet very many Tyrants, both worshipping Christ and serving idols, meanwhile infested her, and both embracing the elegance of her race and body, and gaping after her riches and estates, affected to be joined to her in marriage. But she with one mind and one will repelled all from herself, and studied to please God alone, and labored to educate her son rather to the glory of God than to the honor of the age. In whom while she saw good virtues rising with good hope of heavenly life, she rejects second marriage. and beheld his mind rather to eternal than to frail things leaning; of the very many gifts of the Holy Spirit she rejoiced, which she saw in him.

[4] B. Robert holy from infancy, Since the same B. Robert, when he was an infant and sucking milk, had not the morals of an infant's malice, by crying or being angry: and withdrawn from the milk in his boyhood, in his morals, was like a man who with most diligent intention should pant toward God: wherefore his father having him in hatred, that he would become foolish and senseless many times had affirmed, while he lived. But those who worshipped God with good and right faith, seeing this boy in his boyhood being so benevolent, greatly loved him, and that he would be blessed, although through ignorance, yet truly said. For the Holy Spirit, who had suffused Jacob the Patriarch in his mother's womb with His grace, this infant also inspired: because God works His miracles often even in those, who from the softness of veins and marrows have not yet full knowledge ^c… For in the full benediction of the fruitful earth, namely of benevolence, God loved Jacob before he was born, and in the same inspiration B. Robert in his infancy visited. For God foresaw, that the sensible earth of this boy would desire to pant toward God; and because this, still sucking milk, in his morals he began to show; all who saw him, greatly loved him: since wherever benevolence is in a man, to the love of him the desires of men are kindled, as the dew falls upon the grain unto its greenness. And so ^d when the boy Robert was seven years old, at seven he learns letters: he desired to learn letters; in which his mother caused him to be instructed: but yet he would not be a Cleric, but in the place of his father a Duke of his province and a defender of the Churches she disposed him to be. He himself moreover by the grace of the Holy Spirit was merciful toward the poor, which is the ministry and sustentation of benevolence, as the bowels serving a man contain him. For also according to the manners of boys, wherever he found poor little boys, he offered them to his mother, saying: Mother, behold thy sons. Which deed she kindly receiving, answered him: My son, they are thy brothers. Who when fittingly and honestly he was nourished, in good morals he grows up, in age and wisdom before God and men profiting, to a youthful age, educated in holy morals and virtues, he came; anointed with the oil of sanctity, as David, with the oil of gladness before his fellows: and the glory of all the world with all the effort of his mind he spurned, although he seemed corporeally before men to have it. Psal. 44. 8. For in good morals he lived holily, and the church with pious prayers assiduously frequented; and the things in which in the sacred volumes he was taught, with pious zeal he commended to good memory.

[7] And when he came to the twelfth year of his age, his mother said to him: My son, since we have very many means and riches, ^e let us make an oratory in honor of God, and the salvation of our souls. To whom he answered: Not, my mother, but first what the Gospel has let us attend to: ^f and the Prophet says: Break thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the wandering into thy house. Isaiah 58. 7. And again: When thou shalt see the naked, cover him, and despise not thy flesh. Which his mother hearing, very greatly rejoiced, because her son had given her so sound a counsel. For through the Holy Spirit good and holy desires in the mind of that youth, like balsam, sweated: and how these things which he had spoken could be done, with himself silently he discussed, and so fell asleep. Whence by the admonition of the Holy Spirit a certain old man in sleep he saw, who having a fair face, certain little boys in clear water washed, and that, strengthened by a divine vision, whom afterwards into a certain orchard, with every kind of flowers and trees most pleasant, and full of the odor of all aromas, leading, with a most white garment clothed. But B. Robert, allured by the pleasantness of that place, said to the old man: Here I wish to remain. To whom the old man answered: Here thou shalt not now remain, since a fruitful ladder into heaven thou shalt prepare for thyself, where thou shalt be a companion of the Angels. Wherefore, what concerning the poor thou hast disposed, neglect not to perfect, that by the food and clothing of them thou mayest be fed with the food of life; and clothed with the garment, of which Adam through disobedience was stripped; and made in mind a pilgrim to the world, mayest choose for thyself the best part. But after the blessed boy Robert awoke, these things which in sleep he had seen, the mother rejoicing, he fulfills. he narrated to his mother. Whence she much rejoiced, bending her knees to the Lord, prayed saying: O Lord my God, my desire in my son Thou wilt fulfill. And then both the mother and the same her son, beside the bank of the flowing waters building certain dwellings of houses, there kept the poor and naked: to whom also food and clothing by two faithful and holy men they ministered: of whom one called Wigbert, served them in the Priesthood; but the other being one of their ministerials, was unlearned. He himself also B. Robert, of his tender age and nobility for the love of Christ forgetful, the feet

of the poor many times washed, food and drink set before them, and beds often spread for them, and so even to the fifteenth year of his age served God faithfully.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER II.

The Roman pilgrimage. Deliberation about the state of life.

[6] And since in the pomp of the age by much riches and a household he was powerful, by which he saw himself drawn to the world; he at length began to discuss with himself, how B. Alexius left father and mother, home and the riches of the age as a pilgrim; In his 15th year wishing to withdraw, and chose altogether to imitate him in this, that he might be able so much the more freely to serve God in quiet. Which his mother perceiving by certain indications in him, although he concealed this from her, said to him with tears: Son, remember the grief of thy mother's bowels, and attend to the groans of thy widowed mother, and look upon thy household trusting in thee alone, and foresee not to bring upon us intolerable misery: the mother at first dissuading, for of our means to the poor and needy and all the indigent, according as it shall please thee, thou wilt be able to bestow. And what is better and more useful to thee, than thus to serve God? These things his mother with many tears and many groans speaking, in his heart this blessed youth was greatly troubled. At the same time also certain nobles, both of strangers and of his kinsmen, came to him, saying: Thou who hast so great an honor of the Duchy and so great riches of the age, why dost thou make thyself so contemptible? With these and other similar words they daily lacerated him, tempting, if him from his good purpose and from his good way they could turn aside. Which he perceiving, said to his mother: Behold by the suggestion of the devil, who envies my purpose and my life, ensnared I shall be implicated with the world, and after the ways of my father, although unwilling, I shall go: then permitting, for a pilgrimage for this I desired, that God alone so much the more freely I might be able to serve. Which heard his mother, who had placed all her hope in God, straitened and weighed down by fear, feared, lest her son by the nobility of his race allured should be implicated with the world: and preferring to lack an heir, than that her son entangled in secular implications should serve the devil, to him, as much for grief as she could, said: Son, since I see thee, troubled by many counsels, unfittingly drawn to the world; do what thou wilt, and the pilgrimage, which thou long hast desired, undertake; and He to whom it was said, Thou alone art a pilgrim in Jerusalem, he goes on pilgrimage to Rome: be in thy journey, and send thee back to me unhurt to the glory of His name. Luke 24. But he by the will of his mother took up the pilgrimage, and to the threshold of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul with certain of his men set out. Whom when the men of that region saw, they wondered at him, saying to one another: Truly this man is noble: for his face appearing bright shone in benevolence, since the grace of the Holy Spirit had suffused him: whence also all, who beheld him, in the embrace of charity loved him. For as a star without a cloud grows bright and is clear, so also in the face of a man benevolence is beheld, because the same man is in the good custom of the Holy Spirit. And when B. Robert commended himself to God and the merits of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul daily, for some time there he stayed.

[7] But while he there made delays, by certain religious men of that region he was asked, he deliberates about the state of life, of what conversation or desire he was: to whom he himself opened all things, which in his heart he had. But they gave him counsel, that he should attend to this Gospel, where it is written: Go, and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come follow me: since a pilgrimage to him would be good and useful, lest the riches of nobility draw him to perdition. Matth. 19. 21. Who submitted himself to their counsel, and deliberated in his mind so to do. To his mother at last returned, in his estate, which was very wide, villas and churches, in places where there were none, he caused to be built, and to his men distributed them; that there remaining, both to his mother, as long as they lived, they should minister, and to all coming and laboring in necessity in aid should succor. he builds churches: But he himself the Duchy, his mother, household, and possessions, and all that he had, to leave, and for the name of Christ to become a pilgrim, thought. ^a But the possession of his estates, which by hereditary right both from his father, and from his mother and from his other progenitors he had possessed, from that place, where his Relics are laid up; namely, where the river Nahe flows into the Rhine, up along the bank of the Rhine even to ^b the river Selz extended; and then to two other rivers, his possessions being left, of which the first is called Wiza, the second Apffla, passed over; and there beyond the Nahe a little river called Elra, which there is the middle of three rivers of the same name, ascended; and from hence to ^c the river Simera was directed, and thence through the wood Sane, where the river, which is called Heienbach, pours itself into the Rhine, curved back.

[8] on the mountain, he dwells; But the habitation, both of B. Robert and of his mother, at that time, on account of the sweetness of the flowing waters, was in that very place, where their Relics now are laid up. But their city, situated there and fortified with very strong buildings, through all the adjacent plain even to the root of the neighboring mountain and even to the bank of the Rhine extended. where Bingen formerly famous. But on the other side of the river Nahe there was a village, in which the dwellings of their servants and fishermen, and the stables of their horses, and granaries, where their grain was stored, and presses, where their wine was pressed, were. In those very places greater fame and greater abundance of riches and of all secular dignities at that time flourished, than in other cities of the same region thrived: since there the concourse and passage of many men of divers provinces was assiduously frequented.

[9] At length when B. Robert had attained a youthful age, namely when he was now almost twenty years old, many of his kinsmen and ministers him, in his 20th year in vain he is invited to the delights of the world: although resisting, drew to the pleasure of the world. Whom he himself, because he wholly burned in the love of God, repelled from himself with pious and fitting words, since God, who knows all things both future and past and present, had foreseen another thing in him. For while the same Blessed one, like a tree full of fruits, was of so rich and elegant a nature, that his mind through the nobility and riches of the age could easily be perverted into the contrariety of good things, and in sanctity could wither (as in certain men it often happens, who began good works, in which afterwards they withered) God took him to Himself. ^d At length the mother of this blessed youth Robert, when in the continence of widowhood she devoutly served God with good and holy works, saw a dream by divine revelation, the mother forewarned by a vision, namely that a rib had fallen from her side; whence much terrified, frequent groans and frequent sighs of her heart she bore, as also afterwards not much time having passed it became clear. For her son B. Robert, when he was in the intention of the devotion which he had vowed to God, that he might fulfill it, began to be sick with great fevers.

[10] In which sickness the old man, whom long before in sleep he had seen, appeared to him, saying; I am the ancient of days, who appeared to Daniel in the vision of the night, and now also I manifest myself to thee, he is called to eternal glory, and call thee to the glory of infinite beatitude; since by the orchard, which to thee formerly in a vision I showed, the good and holy works, which thou hast now completed, I truly forepresented. Who when he awoke from sleep, terrified with sadness and fear, because he would gladly have completed what he had vowed to God in his desires, to his mother, who had seen, indicated. But she immediately struck with the greatest grief, how great groans and how great laments at these things heard she uttered, by anyone who has suffered the like can be perceived. And so when this blessed one for thirty days had labored in the aforesaid sickness, in the twentieth year of his age God him, in a good confession and in the fear of God, from this life took: lest if to a perfect age he should come, after the ways of his father he should walk; because He who knows all things, so foreknew it to be expedient for him. For God prevented him, and him shining in innocence from this life withdrew. But in the oratory, and buried, shines with miracles. which he and his mother above the river Nahe in his aforesaid estate had constructed, with the greatest concourse of the peoples of all the region he was buried: some indeed over him weeping, since immature from the present life he was taken; but others over him rejoicing, because by the miracles, which God there through him did, all that region, as a day by the sun, was illuminated. For through eight years God very many signs and miracles, through the merits of this His beloved, in the aforesaid place in the sick, in the lame, and in captives did; so that whoever in tribulations were vexed, coming to his sepulchre, by the grace of God were freed.

[11] But blessed Bertha, the elect widow of God, after the happy death of her son, The mother after a life holily led, a holy life in great contrition of her heart henceforth led; and all that she had to the sepulchre of her son for the service of God offered: and all the necessities to the congregation of the Brethren, who there served God in divine things, from these fully ministered. For after the end of her son in all goodness of fasts, alms, and prayers for almost twenty-five years living, many labors for the love of God piously and justly she consummated; she is buried with him, and then seized with corporeal infirmity, the spirit, which she always in heavenly desires

had fixed, she rendered to God; and in peace, in the sepulchre of her son, in her aforesaid estate honorifically was buried.

[12] She being dead the aforesaid place in the honor of sanctity, and in the peace of quiet persisted even to the tyranny of the Northmen. For some years after the happy passing of this Blessed Bertha being passed, the nation of the Northmen, going out from their borders, very many cities about the streams of the Rhine by a divine judgment devastated: Trier also they destroyed, and so ravaging to the city of Roboldus, namely the father of B. Robert, Bingen laid waste by the Northmen where the river Nahe is mingled with the Rhine, of which above it was said, coming, this also by ruin and fire they reduced to nothing. Which done, when those nefarious men at length repulsed had laid aside their ferocity, and returned to their lands; the inhabitants of the aforesaid place, who had remained surviving, and who through divers hiding-places had been dispersed, returning, and seeing their city demolished, on the other side of the river Nahe, on account of the defense of the running rivers and adjacent mountains, built other dwellings for themselves: and all things which in wood and stone, in cast-out foundations and other utensils, from the aforesaid destroyed place they could carry, to the other bank of the Nahe to dwell there they carried. And so the former place, it is rebuilt in another place. which long had been powerful by the frequency of peoples, the loftiness of buildings, the amplitude of riches, was desolate, and through subsequent times brought to a greater desolation. Whence also all the estates, which B. Robert by hereditary right had possessed, by strangers and divers men were torn into the contrariety of dissipation, and nothing of them remained unshaken, except the church, in which the same elect of God, as above said, together with his mother rested, which also even to our times endured: so even, that we beheld it with our own eyes, when to that same place by God's showing we had come: and except some few vineyards pertaining to the same church, which from the Lord ^g Hermann the Bishop of Hildesheim, and his brother a noble man, called Bernard, by us at a price we procured.

ANNOTATA.

AN AUTHENTIC TESTIMONY

Of some Relics translated.

Rupert the Duke, at Bingen in the diocese of Mainz (S.)

Bertha his mother, at Bingen in the diocese of Mainz (B.)

FROM THE MSS.

We John Suicard of Cronberg, Scholaster of the distinguished Metropolitan Church of Mainz, and Provost of S. Alban, of the Most Reverend and Most Illustrious Father in Christ and Lord, the Lord Wolfgang Archbishop of the holy See of Mainz, Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire through Germany, Prince Elector, Vicar General in spirituals, and for the below-written specially deputed by the same Commissary, to all and singular, to whom these our letters shall come, after our due and prompt offices and services, make known and wish it to be known, how the Most Reverend and Most Serene Lords and Princes, the Lord Philip by the Grace of God Bishop of Regensburg and Ferdinand Provost of Strasbourg, Counts Palatine of the Rhine, and Dukes of both Bavaria, after the residence completed in this our Metropolitan city and church, according to the statutes and custom of the same, not without a distinguished example of virtues and Religion, when hence from us to the sacred threshold of the Apostles they determined to withdraw, for that ardent piety and affection which they have toward God and the saints of God, whose memory is in benediction, asked, that before they departed from our church and diocese, the sacred places and monasteries with religious veneration to visit, and of their sacred Relics somewhat to bear and carry away with them by the gracious consent of His Highness might be permitted. To whose laudable zeal and piety His Highness desiring to gratify, committed to us by special mandate, that satisfying their pious vows, we should as soon as possible consign the petition to effect. Which for the due service of our obedience executing, the Reverend man Vitus Miletus, Doctor of sacred Theology, Provost at S. Maurice in this place, being summoned to us, him with letters and mandates in the name of the Vicariate and Commissariate, together with the Reverend and excellent man and Lord Quirinus Leoninus, Licentiate of the same sacred Theology, Canon of the Cathedral Church of Regensburg, Theologian and moderator of the Most Serene Princes, to the churches and surrounding sacred places we sent, and to the same we gave plenary power, of inquiring into their sacred Relics in the archives and reliquaries with due reverence, of opening, examining, and of the same, as much as should befit discretion and religion, in the fear of the Lord of referring back to us. Who the duty committed to them diligently executing, a previous diligent inspection and information being made, these to us from the Abbey of the Virgins of the mountain of S. Rupert, commonly Rupersberg, of the Order of S. Benedict, near the town of Bingen, brought Relics, namely two ribs of S. Rupert, son of the late Roboald Count Palatine of the Rhine, from Berta Duchess of Austrasia and Lorraine, still fleshy: likewise three other oblong bones of the same: likewise of the spine of the back still fleshy: likewise a tooth from his head, from the upper chin under the right eye: likewise three bones of S. Hildegard, there formerly Abbess, a most noble and most religious Virgin, who full of the prophetic spirit, wrote a most beautiful work of epistles of her visions or revelations, in the time of the Lord Bernard and Pope Eugenius the third, which books of hers Eugenius the fourth approved and confirmed; her birthday is celebrated September XVII. Likewise of the same one little rib and of her spine: likewise two bones of S. Bertha the mother of S. Rupert, Duchess of Austrasia and Lorraine: likewise the throat with another particle of S. Satyria Virgin and Martyr. Which sacred Relics we receiving with due reverence and kissing, a solemn oath being first received from the Lords Subcommissaries, that they in the due places, archives and reliquaries, for true, certain and undoubted sacred Relics, from of old and beyond the memory of men by all truly Christian orthodox Catholics always and everywhere reverently held and venerated, and of the same not rarely before this by the Archbishops of Mainz to supreme Kings and Princes wont to be communicated and transmitted, in good faith had detected and found: so that of their faith and truth no one truly Christian can or ought to doubt. With that reverence which was fitting and lowliness of mind, in the name and on the part of the Most Reverend and Most Illustrious our Lord the Archbishop and Prince Elector of Mainz, to the Most Serene Princes, under the very celebration of holy Mass, with many other Relics not inserted in this instrument, in the presence specially required for this of the Notary and witnesses below written, in the name of God, to His glory and that of all His Saints we delivered: humbly and from the soul beseeching God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom all the saints happily live and reign, that this service of our servitude such as it is to them may profit unto glory and honor, but to their Serenities and us all by their intercession unto eternal salvation. Amen. In faith of all and singular which we have willed these present to be made, and with our own hand to subscribe, and with the seals of our Vicariate and of the Abbess herself and the Convent of the mentioned monastery to be fortified. These things were done in the Metropolitan city of Mainz, in the Chapel of the court of the Most Serene Princes, in the year of the nativity of Christ one thousand five hundred and ninety-two, but on the X day of the month of August, in the first year of the Pontificate of our Most Holy Lord the Lord Clement the eighth, there being present there the Reverend, Noble, Magnificent and excellent men and Lords, the Lord Adolph Wolffgang called Metternich, Canon of Speyer and Provost of S. Andrew at Worms, prefect of the Court of the said Princes; the Lord Aetherius Hoffman Doctor of sacred Theology, of the Collegiate Churches of the Lady Virgin at the Steps and of S. Peter outside the walls of Mainz respectively Dean and Cantor, Rector for the time of the gracious University of Mainz; the Lord Balthasar Bafer of Holobus, Chamberlain of the said Princes, the Lord John Hager the Bavarian, Chaplain of the said Princes, specially required and called for the premises. All and singular which, in the already said place and day, about the seventh hour before noon, the sacred office of Mass being first devoutly held, the relics themselves being placed upon the altar, by the then deputed Commissaries of the Reverend Archbishop of Mainz above mentioned, together still existing there, the Holy Gospels of God being first touched by them, according to the tenor of the given letters, truly and legitimately to have been said, done, transacted, delivered, I George Molitoris, public Notary, and Secretary sworn of the Reverend Lords of the Chapter of the high holy temple of Mainz, together with the witnesses above written, with me for this specially anew asked, in most evident testimony of the truth, by this subscription of my own hand and the signet of the Notariate to the margin in the wonted manner affixed, before all and singular attest.

✠ place of the seals ✠