ON ST. JOHN OF MECKLENBURG, BISHOP AND MARTYR,
IN THE YEAR 1066
CommentaryJohn, bishop of Mecklenburg. (S.)
BY H. D.
[1] The commemoration of St. John in the more recent calendars. On the seventh of the Ides of June of the year 1066, Gottschalk, prince of the Obodrites, with Yppo or Eppo the priest, in the city of Leontia (Lenzen); on the Ides of July Ansverus the monk with his companions at Ratzeburg; on the fourth of the Ides of November John, bishop of Mecklenburg, in Rethra, the metropolis of the Slavs, were slaughtered in hatred of the faith. And that Ansverus indeed was long venerated as a true martyr is proved by many records [Act. SS., July vol. IV, pp. 97–108. To these may be added what the Annals of Stade testify: "The whole arm of this St. Ansverus is kept at Stade in the church of the blessed Virgin." M. G., Scr., vol. XVI, p. 315.] . Not so with Gottschalk and John. For to Henschenius's posthumous Commentary on Bl. Gottschalk and his companions Papebroch thought an appendix should be added, in which he laboriously tries to demonstrate that these blessed men are not to be excluded from our work, although there is only a reasonable presumption of their cult Act. SS., June vol. II, pp. 40–42. . About John, whose anniversary recurs today, the same things would have to be repeated. For the first to have entered him in the calendars seems to have been Arnold Wion, who adduced no ancient martyrology as witness Lignum Vitae, vol. II (Venice, 1595), pp. 365–66. . Ménard appeals to Trithemius alone Martyrologium sanctorum ordinis divi Benedicti (Paris, 1629), pp. 17, 97, 494. , and copies his words from the Hirsau Chronicle at the year 1064: "In these times there came from Ireland a certain monk of our order, who was called John, into the territory of Mecklenburg in Saxony, preaching the word of God to the inhabitants; whom, on account of his zeal for the faith and his tireless constancy in evangelising, the Roman pontiff set over those peoples as bishop; who at length, crowned with martyrdom for faith and justice, departed to the Lord [Iohannis Trithemii … Secundae partis Chronica insignia duo (Frankfurt, 1601), p. 58.] ." Ferrarius indeed, after his manner, affirms that he used the records of the church of Schwerin, when he saw no records and drew everything from very well-known chronicles and books Catalogus generalis sanctorum (Venice, 1625), pp. 437–38. . Bucelinus had no other sources Menologium Benedictinum (Feldkirch, 1655), p. 769. , and Dempster copied Wion [Menologium Scotorum (Bologna, 1622), at the day; in Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, p. 218.] . By what reason Ménard was led to assign to St. John, besides the 10th of November, also the 23rd of February, he himself did not disclose, nor have we found out Act. SS., Feb. vol. III, p. 360. . That in the month of February the memory of a translation or invention was perhaps kept is an opinion of Colgan which rests on no argument Acta SS. Hiberniae, vol. I (Louvain, 1645), p. 407. .
[2] On the testimony of Adam of Bremen Let us hear Adam of Bremen, who is the primary source of what has been handed down about John. After he related that the peoples of the Slavs who look to the diocese of Hamburg were brought to the faith by the help of Gottschalk, and that in Mecklenburg, "which is a renowned city of the Obodrites, there were three congregations of those serving God [Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, III, 19, in Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, p. 110.] ", he enumerates the prelates of the new churches appointed by Archbishop Adalbert, among whom John of Mecklenburg: bishop of Mecklenburg, "He appointed John the Scot to Mecklenburg Gesta, III, 20, same vol., p. 110. Cf. III, 32, p. 117. ." Before he was sent to the barbarous peoples of the Slavs, he attended the archbishop as a companion, on the testimony of Adam, or of the almost contemporary cleric of Bremen who wrote the appendix to book III. "For the glorious archbishop, holding all bishops in fitting honour, urged them by prayer and reward to preach the word of God to the barbarians. Thus very often we saw him Thus in the printed editions; one would expect eum. surrounded by four or five bishops; as we heard him say himself, he could not be without a multitude. But when he had dismissed them from him, he seemed more irritable than usual on account of the solitude. Yet he never wished [Our author quite often uses the verb malle for: to wish gladly, to desire. Cf. book III, 8, 23, 60. Waitz.] to be without at least three, of whom the most constant were Tangward of Brandenburg, a wise man and the bishop's companion even before his episcopate; the second was John, a certain bishop of the Scots, a simple man and one fearing God, apostle of the Slavs who, afterwards sent into Slavonia, was killed there with the prince Gottschalk; the third had the name Bovo, it is uncertain where born or where ordained, who nevertheless boasted that from love of pilgrimage he had gone to Jerusalem three times, and had been carried off from there to Babylon by the Saracens, and at length, being freed, had passed through many provinces throughout the world. These three, since they were not his suffragans, we find that he cherished with greater kindness, because they had no sees of their own Gesta, appendix to book III, same vol., p. 152. ." and he was a martyr. At length, after the slaying of Gottschalk and Ansverus, John too was killed by the barbarians. Adam continues: "John, the aged bishop, with the other Christians, captured in the city of Mecklenburg
was kept for a triumph. He, then, beaten with clubs for the confession of Christ, and then led through each of the cities of the Slavs to be mocked, since he could not be turned from the name of Christ, had his hands and feet cut off, and his body was thrown into the street, while his head was cut off, which the pagans, fixing it on a pike as a token of victory, sacrificed to their god Redigast [On Redigast, a deity of the Slavs, Beyer, Die Landwehren und die Grenzheiligthümer des Landes der Redarier, in the Jahrbücher des Vereins für Mecklenburgische Geschichte, vol. XXXVII (1872), pp. 138–42.] . These things were done in the metropolis of the Slavs, Rethra [About the place where that metropolis of the Slavs once was, there has been very much dispute among the learned. Brückner, Rethra lag auf der Fischerinsel in der Tollense, in the Jahrbücher des Vereins für Mecklenburgische Geschichte, vol. LIV (1889), pp. 153–67; the same, Zur Rethrafrage, ibid., vol. LV, pp. 261–76; the same, Nachtrag zur Rethrafrage, ibid., vol. LVI, pp. 245–46; the same, Berichtigung zur Rethrafrage, ibid., vol. LVII, pp. 350–54; Schildt, Entgegnung, ibid., vol. LIV, pp. 168–79; vol. LV, p. 277; Grotefend, Bemerkungen, ibid., vol. LIV, pp. 175–180; vol. LV, pp. 277–78; the same, Mein letztes Wort in der Rethrafrage, ibid., vol. LVI, pp. 247–48. Cf. also Hirsch, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter Heinrich II, vol. I, pp. 259–60.] , on the fourth of the Ides of November Gesta, III, 50, same vol., pp. 130–31. ," and indeed, in the opinion of all, in the year 1066 [Act. SS., July vol. IV, p. 97; Giesebrecht, Wendische Geschichten, vol. II (Berlin, 1843), p. 106; G. Meyer von Kronau, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter Heinch IV und Heinrich V, vol. I, pp. 517–519.] . What is read in other places in Adam's books and seems to be referable to our John will be weighed more fittingly where we speak of the records of the Icelanders.
[3] Various testimonies. Meanwhile let us bring forward the remaining testimonies, which, as they are to be traced back to Adam, need no explanation. What Helmold has about John in the Chronicle of the Slavs, book I, ch. XXII, he copies word for word from Adam Helmold's Chronica Slavorum, ed. B. Schmeidler, pp. 45–46. . He makes mention of him moreover in ch. LXIX: "In the times of this man (Ezo, bishop of Oldenburg) there arose in the church of Hamburg the great Adalbert, who of the foreign bishops whom he had at his table appointed John bishop in Mecklenburg Ibid., p. 130. ." The Saxon Annalist at the year 1065 M. G., Scr., vol. VI, p. 694. and Albert of Stade Annales Stadenses, in M. G., Scr., vol. XVI, p. 315. bring forward nothing which they did not borrow from Adam, and so on with the rest who did not indulge their own ingenuity. That Trithemius, as usual, attributed too much to conjectures, asserting that John was a pupil of the Order of St. Benedict and was appointed bishop by the Roman pontiff, is sufficiently plain from what has been said.
[4] He announced the faith to the Icelanders; That our John, before he was appointed bishop in Slavonia, preached the Christian faith to the people of Iceland is testified by the ancient writers of this island. Ari son of Thorgils, a priest (1067–1148) [On Ari, cf. E. Mogk, in H. Paul, Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie, vol. II (Strassburg, 1901–1909), pp. 745–47; F. Wagner, Le livre des Islandais du pretre Ari le Savant (Brussels, 1898), pp. 9–16.] , inserted into ch. VIII of his book Islendingaboc a catalogue of the foreign bishops who stayed in Iceland; and he cites as his witness Teit, son of that Isleif (1006–1080) who was the first native bishop of the Icelanders. Thesse ero nöfn byscopa theirra es veredh hafa á Íslande útlender, as the priest Ari, at sögo Teitz. Fridhrecr com í heidhne her. En thesser vóro sídhan: Bjarnhardhr enn bócvise Vár; Colr fá ár; Hrodholfr XIX ár; Iöhann enn Írske fá ár; Bjarnhardhr XIX ár; Heinreer II ár [From the edition of G. Vigfusson and F. Y. Powell, Origines Islandicae, vol. I (Oxford, 1905), p. 298.] . In Latin: "These are the names of the foreign bishops who have been in Iceland, according to the account of Teit: Frederick came here in the time of the pagans; but these were afterwards: Bernard, learned in letters, five years; Col, a few years; Radulf, nineteen years; John the Irishman, a few years; Bernard, nineteen years; Henry, two years." Almost the same things are read in the Mantissa to the book Landnamaboc, where, however, instead of John the Scot, John the Saxon, Ioan enn Saxneski, is written, and four years are attributed to him Vigfusson, same vol., pp. 273–74. . We do not wish to dispute about the number of years; it is certainly strange that the anonymous writer found out what Ari did not know. Not unfittingly did he call him a Saxon who was made bishop of the church of Mecklenburg and, setting out from Saxony, began to announce Christ to the Slavic peoples. For that he is the same man who, after a few years spent in Iceland, was sent into Slavia and there crowned with a cruel martyrdom, no one will rightly doubt who has read the Deeds of the bishops of Iceland in the book called Hungrvaka. Thess es getedh, at byscopar kómo út hingat til Íslannz um daga Ísleifs byscops, other writers of the Icelanders en Fridhrekr einn kom ádhr út, sá es sögor sé fra gœrvar. En thesser hafa svá út komet, at menn hœlzt skyn á vitadh: Ioan byscop enn Írske; ok hafa that sumer menn fyr satt at hann fœre sídhan til Vindlannz, ok snœre thar mörgom mönnum til Godhs, ok vas sidhan tekenn ok bardhr ok hœggnar af bædhe hendr ok fœtr ok höfodhet sídharzt, ok fór medh theim pinengom til Godhs [Vigfusson, same vol., p. 431. An excerpt was edited by F. Jonsson, in M. G., Scr., vol. XXIX, p. 413.] . In Latin: "Certain bishops are said to have come here to Iceland in the days of Bishop Isleif. Before that, however, one Frederick came, about whom something has been committed to writing. And these are the newcomers who are especially known: John, an Irish bishop; and there are those who hold for certain that he afterwards went to Wendland and there converted many men to God; that afterwards he was captured and scourged and had both hands and feet cut off, and at last his head, and that by this torment he departed to God."
[5] and Adam himself assert. We must return for a little to Adam, if indeed we grant Waitz that most of the scholia added to the Deeds of the bishops were conceived by the writer himself Script. rerum Germ., same vol., pp. XI–XII. , above all number LXXXI, which has this about John: "This John, having left Scotland from love of pilgrimage, came into Saxony, and being kindly received by our archbishop, not long after was directed by him into Slavonia to the prince Gottschalk. While staying with him in those days, he is said to have baptised many thousands of pagans Script. rerum Germ., same vol., p. 131. ." He who wrote this doubtless did not know of the Icelandic journey. Yet John's pilgrimage to ultimate Thule seems to have left some obscure and uncertain traces in Adam's books. He who annexed the appendix to Adam's book III writes this about Adalbert: "Besides, he placed a certain Thurolf over the Orkneys. He also sent there John, ordained in Scotland Ibid., p. 151. ." Of another John the Scot who was in Adalbert's retinue nothing at all has been handed down, and accordingly it must be believed that this John of ours is designated in this place also. Beware, however, of thinking that Adam himself, who published the Description of the islands of the North and knew well that Iceland was not one of the Orkneys, could not have erred in this matter, and that accordingly the slip of another hand is noted. For he, in the fourth book of the Deeds, seems to place Blascona, which is a place in Iceland, or Blaskoeg, in the Orkneys: "For the same Orkney islands, although they were previously governed by the bishops of the English and of the Scots, our primate, by order of the pope, ordained Turolf to the city of Blascona, to take charge of all Gesta, book IV, 34, same vol., p. 183. Read Waitz's note at this place. ." He certainly touched on these things in passing and had little insight into them. So too the man who conceived scholion XCIV, about our John, as it seems: "John was destined for the islands of the Baltic Sea Gesta, append. to book III, same vol., p. 151. ." For the sea-journey, undertaken from Saxony, put the Swabian sea before his mind [Cf. K. Maurer, Die Bekehrung des Norwegischen Stammes zum Christentum, vol. II (Munich, 1856), p. 585, note 74. On John's Icelandic mission read also A. D. Jörgensen, Den Nordiske Kirkes Grundlæggelse og förste Udvikling (Copenhagen, 1874–1876), pp. 672, 701; Tillæg, p. 101; K. Maurer, Vorlesungen über altnordische Rechtsgeschichte, vol. II (Leipzig, 1908), pp. 39–41.] .
[6] When he set out for Iceland. That John sailed to Iceland there seems no reason to doubt; that he was sent there by Adalbert is asserted by no such clear and certain testimonies, indeed it is not true, if John is one of those about whom the Deeds of the bishops, or Hungrvaka, narrate this: Um daga Ísleifs byscops kómo út byscopar af ödhrom löndom, ok budho mart linara an Ísleifr byscop: urdho their thví vin-sæler vidh vánda menn, thar til es Adalbertus erki-byscop sende bréf til Íslannz, ok bannadhe mönnom alla thiónosto af theim at thiggja, ok kvadh thá suma vesa bann-setta en alla í ó-leyfe síno faret hafa Vigfusson, same vol., p. 429. . In Latin: "In the days of Bishop Isleif there came bishops from other regions who imposed milder rule than Bishop Isleif. Therefore they became friends of wicked men, until Archbishop Adalbert sent letters to Iceland and forbade men to accept any ministry from them, and said that some of them were excommunicated and that all had gone without his leave." Whatever this may be, if John came to Iceland either by Adalbert's order, or without his knowledge, yet while he was already sitting, he did not set out before the year 1043, in which Adalbert assumed the bishopric. That this is said to have happened in the days of Isleif, some have understood of the time of his life, not of his episcopate (1056–1080) Maurer, Die Bekehrung des Norwegischen Stammes, vol. II, p. 582, note 61. . There are those who the see of Mecklenburg
was founded about the year 1052 Lappenberg, in the Archiv für älteredeutsche Geschichtskunde, vol. IX, p. 394. , others some years later [G. Dehio, Geschichte des Erzbistums Hamburg-Bremen, vol. I (Berlin, 1877), pp. 68–69.] , certainly not after 1062, since in a diploma issued in that very year mention is made of the diocese of Ratzeburg, which was established at the same time as that of Mecklenburg [Lappenberg, Hamburgisches Urkundenbuch, no. 90. Cf. Maurer, same vol., p. 585, note 76; J. Wiggers, Kirchengeschichte Mecklemburgs (Parchim und Ludwigslust, 1840), p. 24.] . Neither opinion is opposed to the reasons of Konrad Maurer, who opines that John preached the divine word to the people of the Icelanders about the years 1046–1050 Vorlesungen, vol. II, p. 41. .
[7] He was not the protomartyr of America. Through the neglect of a single letter it came about that our John was believed to have set out, not into Wendland or Vandalia, and there suffered martyrdom, as we read in the Deeds of the bishops of Iceland, but into Vinland [Cf. Finnur Jonsson, Historia ecclesiastica Islandiae, vol. I (Copenhagen, 1772), pp. 87–88, note c.] , so that the holy bishop's arena was transferred from Slavia to the eastern coast of America, and he himself was held to be the protomartyr of America [So G. Gravier, Découverte, de l'Amérique par les Normands (Rouen, 1874) p. 166; O. Moosmüller, Europäer in Amerika vor Columbus (Regensburg, 1879), p. 49; L. Jelič, L'évangélisation de l'Amérique avant Christophe Colomb, in the Compte rendu du Congrès scientifique des Catholiques, Paris, 1891, vol. V, p. 172.] . For Vinland is the part of North America which is thought to have been discovered by the Icelanders at the end of the tenth century, and today to be designated by the names Massachusetts and Rhode Island Reeves, The Finding of Wineland the Good, Oxford, 1890. . But the reading of the book Hungrvaka, of which we have given an excerpt, is not at all doubtful, and squares very well with Adam's assertions [The matter was very well discussed by I. Fischer, Kann Bischof Iohannes aus Irland († 1066) mit Recht als erster Martyrer Amerikas bezeichnet werden? in the Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie, vol. XXIV (1900), pp. 756–58.] . For our John, having returned from Iceland, deputed by Archbishop Adalbert to the peoples of Slavonia and appointed bishop of Mecklenburg, departed to God by a glorious martyrdom in Wendland.