Burchard of Würzburg

ON ST. BURCHARD OF WÜRZBURG, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,

AT WÜRZBURG IN GERMANY.

IN THE YEAR 754.

Burchard, bishop, confessor, at Würzburg in Germany. (S.)

BY J. B.

§ I. The Acts of St. Burchard, and his deeds until he undertook the episcopate.

Of St. Burchard, who first bore the mitre of Würzburg in Franconia, a province of Germany, The Acts of St. Burchard, long promised, mention has long since been made in our work more than once, and our elders promised that his Acts would be given at this day, on which he is venerated at Herbipolis (by the inhabitants Würzburg, on the river Main): he was inserted among the Passed Over at the 2nd day of February, because he departed from this life on that day, and accordingly found a place in the martyrologies of Galesinius, Felicius, Canisius, and the English one of Wilson. Likewise at the 8th day of the same month, to which David Camerarius referred him, without, however, adding a reason why he does so. At the 25th day of February, where Galesinius, Wion and Bucelinus are cited, who treat of him at the same day, and it is read that his feast is celebrated at Würzburg on the fifth feria after SS. Dionysius, Rusticus and Eleutherius. At the 8th day of July, on which he is marked in the manuscript Florarium, but not in his proper place. Another Burchard than ours, of whom likewise at the 11th day of October among the Passed Over, is mentioned by Ferrarius in the Catalogue of Saints not inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, namely the bishop of Worms, concerning whom may be seen what was said at the 20th day of August, likewise among the Passed Over.

[2] We give two sets, the older from an anonymous author, the more recent The Acts of St. Burchard are had in two sets: the one written by a certain anonymous author, otherwise unknown, and very brief and meagre. Henry Canisius edited these in volume 4 of the Antiquae Lectiones, page 651 and following, of the Ingolstadt edition; and in volume 3 of the Amsterdam edition, page 5 and the two following, from manuscript parchments of the monastery of the Order of Preachers at Eichstätt. This anonymous author does not mention the translation of St. Burchard made by Hugo, bishop of Würzburg, about the year 984: whence there is a suspicion that he lived at the beginning of the tenth century: the other are far more prolix, and were written by Egilward, a monk of the monastery of St. Burchard near Würzburg, as Trithemius says in the book on the Illustrious Men of his Order, cited by Surius. Trithemius indeed writes of St. Burchard in book 3, chapter 186: His Life has been diligently written; but by whom he is silent. A copy of these Acts, from an ancient manuscript of the monastery of St. Stephen at Würzburg, was brought to our elders at Antwerp in the year 1726 by John Frederick Schannat, editor of the affairs of Fulda; in whose prologue the name of the abbot by whose command they were written is indicated in some way by a capital letter P, and that of the author by the letter E: but in the margin the name Pelgrimus is attributed to the abbot, and Eggithdius to the writer. Whether the latter name is the same as Egilwardus, or was not rightly copied from a codex difficult to read and obliterated, I do not know: however that may be, that the author was a Benedictine monk, a member of the monastery of St. Andrew, or, as it is also called, of St. Burchard, is gathered from the author himself; since he says, in the prologue of book 3, that the monastery to which he belonged was first founded by him (St. Burchard), but afterwards sufficiently ennobled by the presence of his sacred body. At the end of the prologue of the book cited, no. 45, being about to treat of the translation of St. Burchard to the monastery of St. Andrew made by Hugo, bishop of Würzburg, towards the end of the tenth century, he says that, omitting the miracles previously wrought by St. Burchard, he turns his pen chiefly to those which were done or are being done in our times; whence it is permissible to conjecture that, when he wrote of St. Burchard, he was either of the same time or not very far removed from it: wrongly

therefore did Possevinus in the Apparatus Sacer refer him to the year 800, and Vossius, On the Latin Writers, to 1300. The same writer, moreover, reveals whence he took what he narrates; first indeed speaking thus in book 2, chapter V, below at no. 37: Let these things, then, though few out of many, concerning the virtues, teachings and examples of blessed Burchard, arranged according to the capacity of our poor little wit, suffice; which, culled indeed from certain accounts of antiquaries written quite simply, had come into our hands; and then, at the end of the Acts, no. 53, adding to the more ancient writings the truthful account of the fathers who went before.

[3] from Egilward. The same writer, whether one pleases to call him Egilward or by any other name, wrote the more prolix Acts of St. Kilian, bishop and martyr, interpolating the more ancient and at the same time briefer Acts of the same martyr; both of which you have printed and illustrated in volume 2 of July at the 8th day of the same month; where on page 618, no. 13, in the more prolix Acts of St. Kilian, these words are read: But how the venerable pontiff (St. Burchard) first publicly obtained the episcopal see of Würzburg, and how he took up the bodies of the martyrs (SS. Kilian and companions) from the place where they had been unbecomingly laid, we shall take care to make manifest, as we shall be able, in his Life; which is indeed done in the more prolix Acts of St. Burchard. He proceeded, therefore, with equal step both in the said Acts of St. Kilian and in those of Burchard, liberally interpolating both the older ones; would that everywhere from the truth. Surius presents the Acts written by Egilward at the 14th day of October, but mutilated of the prologue, and with the style somewhat changed. Mabillon likewise edited the Acts of St. Burchard and illustrated them with notes, in the third Benedictine century, part 1, page 698, not only the ancient and briefer, but also the more prolix ones of Egilward, cutting off, however, the whole of Egilward's book 1, in place of which he substituted the more ancient Acts. We shall give both entire below, the more prolix ones at least nearer to the style of Egilward himself.

[4] St. Burchard, a noble Englishman, Both Acts agree on the native land of St. Burchard and the condition of his family: The venerable Burchard, says the anonymous at no. 2, noble by the race of the English, made nobler by the pursuit of divine religion. Egilward, however, immediately from the Preface, having premised some things on the growth of the English church from the age of St. Gregory, calls him the most noble offspring of a noble kindred, which, he says, illustrious both in wealth and in lineage, was noted by all as endowed with the marks of divine fear. And it showed itself most famous, especially by this, not only to its fellow-villagers and fellow-tribesmen, but to the whole kingdom, that in good deeds it suffered itself to be second to no generation of that land. He then adds at no. 5, the anonymous being entirely silent on it: Some also relate that the same brothers (Burchard and Suidunus) were not only fellow-countrymen of the great Archbishop Boniface, but also kinsmen in the flesh. The anonymous seems to hint at no. 4 that Burchard was born not only in England but in western England, when he affirms, in the words of Boniface to Zachary the Roman pontiff, that he had come from the western parts; and in this way it is in some way confirmed that the same part of England was the native place both of Boniface and of Burchard: and Boniface was born in Wessex, or in the kingdom of the West Saxons, in which were situated the provinces of Southampton (where Boniface was a monk in the monastery of Nursling), Berkshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon (in which the same began the monastic life) and Cornwall; one of which probably saw St. Burchard brought into the world. That Boniface and our saint were joined by the bond of blood the anonymous nowhere hints, and it becomes less likely: but it is false that St. Swithun (or, as is read in our copy, Suidunus) was Burchard's own brother: for no other seems able to be understood here than St. Swithun, bishop of Winchester, since Egilward at no. 5 says that the Swithun mentioned by him was a bishop in England; and this bishop of Winchester departed from the living about the year 862 (see volume 1 of July, page 327); that is, a whole century and more after the death of St. Burchard, as will be shown in the course of this Commentary. Egilward seems to have heard it from English guests, Gutwinus and Adelmarus, who said that they had read it in English legends: but of what flour those legends were may not rashly, I think, be gathered even from this fable of the kinship of Burchard and Swithun.

[5] Equal to the nobility of his family was in Burchard, from his earliest age, innocence of morals and piety: summoned from his native land by St. Boniface, He, vowing himself to God from his boyish years, says the anonymous at no. 2, hastened to the pursuit of good works as far as boyish age permitted; by which words perhaps he wished to indicate not only Burchard's pious and holy disposition, but also the institute of the monastic life undertaken from his boyish years; Egilward indeed uses more words at this place, but relates nothing more that would be proper and peculiar to St. Burchard rather than to any other boy preluding future holiness. Having become a little older, leaving his native land and the delights of his family, he went away on pilgrimage into a certain part of Gaul, as the anonymous indeed says; namely Comata (as Egilward, the interpolator of the anonymous, adds, but explaining nothing more, since all Gaul was so called), where he remained until, roused by the fame of his holiness, he came to St. Boniface, who presided, as the anonymous says at no. 2, over the church of Mainz; of his own accord, therefore, if you regard the words of the anonymous, he betook himself from Francia to Boniface: but if you hear Egilward, he was summoned from England by the envoys or letters of St. Boniface: for he writes thus at no. 10: But it happened, by the providence of the divine wisdom, which disposes all things sweetly, that while the same man Boniface was toiling in the Lord's field in all things with apostolic strength, and the crop of the word of God was already growing into a great harvest, the venerable hero, taking care lest the fewness of the labourers should impede the fervent work, summoned very many fellow-workers from his native land, whom he knew to be suitable, by envoys and letters, to cultivate the Lord's fallow ground which he had begun to break. Among whom the renowned priest Burchard, most celebrated in every testimony of religion, called to the marriage of the Lamb, glowed especially with the twice-dyed scarlet of twofold charity. Behold St. Burchard summoned into Germany by St. Boniface, not from Gaul but from Britain: I know indeed that it can be said either that Burchard had meanwhile returned to his native land, or that he was summoned from Gaul: but on what solid testimony of antiquity and fit surety? Whence it comes that Burchard's stay in Francia in the habit of a pilgrim comes under suspicion of falsity with me, and I think that he, not having hitherto gone out of the bounds of his native land, hastened at Boniface's invitation into Germany to bring helping labour to Boniface. And I think so the more because Othlo, in the Life of St. Boniface, in Mabillon, third Benedictine century, part 3, page 4, lists St. Burchard by name among those whom he summoned from England, in these words: Whence, sending into his province and native land, he caused many religious persons, both women and men, imbued with various knowledge, to come thence, and divided the burden of his labour. Among whom the chief men were Burchard and Lull, Willibald and Wunnibald his brother, Witta and Gregory. And the third Life of St. Boniface, edited by Henschenius in volume 1 of June, does not contradict the statements of Othlo, although these words are read there, page 482, no. 4: For some from his own nation (Boniface chose), others from the region of Francia, some also from the borders of Ireland, that they might be fellow-workers with him in the Lord's vineyard. Of whom were these: Wigbert from the region of the English, blessed Gregory from a noble lineage of the Franks, the venerable Sturm and Lul, Memgoz, Willibald and his brother Winibald, and very many others, whose names it would be very long to count one by one. For not all who were summoned from England into Germany are listed there by name, and, the truth of the words adduced standing, St. Burchard can be added from Othlo to Winnibald, summoned from England into Germany.

[6] already then perhaps a monk, Further, since Othlo calls the heralds of the word of God roused from England religious men, and among these, from what has been said, St. Burchard is probably to be numbered, it likewise becomes likely that St. Burchard had practised the monastic life in some monastery of England before he was summoned into Germany; which the anonymous cited at no. 5 likewise seems to hint, when he says that St. Burchard vowed himself to God from his boyish years, and hastened to the pursuit of good works. Egilward indeed at no. 12 calls St. Burchard a priest, nor does he bring forward anything in book 1 whence you may dig out that he was a monk: but he affirms it manifestly below at no. 46, where he writes this of Megingaud (he is the Memgoz mentioned in the third Life of St. Boniface): He, then, fellow-pilgrim and fellow-countryman of the blessed Boniface, Burchard, Lull and the rest whom divine love had brought hither from England, and also a monk by profession, as they were, in no way changing or tainting the rigour of his resolve, etc. Trithemius, book 4 on the illustrious men of his Order, chapter 184, says that St. Burchard was a monk of a certain monastery in England: and which it was Pits discloses, On the Writers of England, age IX, at the year 791, writing thus: St. Burchard, an English monk of the Order of St. Benedict in the monastery of Nursling, a disciple of St. Boniface: namely in the same one in which we indicated above at no. 4 that St. Boniface was at one time a monk; concerning which I read this in Leland's Itinerary, column 8: Boniface becomes a monk at Exeter, and afterwards sought the monastery of Nursling, over which the venerable Abbot Winbert presided. But I wish I could confirm St. Burchard's stay in that monastery with a testimony of greater antiquity.

[7] about the year 725 But it is no less likely that St. Burchard embraced the monastic institute after he came to St. Boniface; and Egilward seems to have thought so, calling him at first, when he was with St. Boniface, only a priest, whom afterwards he said was a monk. Willibald, however, in the Life of St. Boniface, volume 1 of June, page 467, no. 37, testifies that very many newcomers from Britain into Germany subjected themselves to the regular institution of St. Boniface; whether our saint was of their number or not, nothing is at hand whence I may clearly define. It can be more certainly defined in about what year at least he came into Germany: both the anonymous and Egilward write that it was when the fame of St. Boniface was already growing far and wide; with which Willibald, just cited, agrees in these words: And so the report of his holy preaching was spread abroad, and grew so much that his fame now resounded through the greatest part of Europe; and from the parts of Britain very many servants of God came to him, men both of reading and of writing, and learned in other arts,

a multitude of congregation came together: of whom very many subjected themselves to his regular institution, and called the people away in very many places from the profanation of wandering heathenism; and some, dispersed into the province of the Hessians, others also into Thuringia, preached the word of God widely through the villages of the peoples.* And then Willibald presently subjoins the death of Pope Gregory II, which happened in the year 731. But Willibald had prefixed to the words just transcribed the ordination of St. Boniface as bishop, made at Rome in the year 723; his return into Hesse, and his journey into Thuringia, where he had founded the monastery of Ohrdruf: therefore St. Burchard and the other Anglo-Saxons mentioned above seem to have come to Boniface between the year 723 and 731, namely about the year 725, to which St. Burchard's coming into Germany is tied by Baronius in the Annals, Alford in the Annals of the Anglo-Saxon Church, Georg von Eckhart in the Commentaries on the Affairs of Eastern Francia, book 21, no. 30, and Father Ignatius Gropp, professed of the monastery of St. Stephen at Würzburg of the Order of St. Benedict, in the German Life of St. Burchard, part 1, chapter 2.

[8] came into Germany, But although the things which Othlo writes about the above-mentioned apostolic men summoned by Boniface from England about the year 725 are not in every respect consonant with the truth, as is clear, for example, from Gregory, who was not an Englishman but a Frank; yet Burchard is not to be struck out of that number, as Le Cointe would have it, in the Annals at the year 724, no. 9, for this reason, that in Egilward he is read to have done nothing from the time when he came to Boniface until Boniface went to Pippin, mayor of the palace, Childeric III having been inaugurated as king easily ten years after the death of Gregory II. For Egilward, although he relates no particular deed of St. Burchard which happened in that interval of time which flowed from Burchard's coming until Boniface's approach to Pippin, mayor of the palace, yet hints sufficiently in general that Burchard, from his coming, for some time won the love of all to himself by the holiness of his morals and by diligence in performing the sacred ministries after the example of the other helpers of St. Boniface: for thus he says at no. 12: From this time (when he was first received by Boniface), joined to the most noble college of holy men under the mastership of the supreme bishop Boniface, Burchard, a priest worthy of God, began most carefully to season the solid holiness of his conversation from the examples of each, as with certain spices, and in comparison with them to despise himself and his whole past life; and thence it came about that, for the honesty of his morals and his life most praiseworthy in all things, he was in a short time an object of love and honour to all. Again, as Egilward writes at no. 5, Boniface asserted to Zachary that he (Burchard) had come from the western parts some years before into his and his companions' fellowship. Likewise in book 2, chapter 3, or no. 27, he says: But the glorious bishop Burckard gave as a gift to the martyrs of Christ (SS. Kilian and companions), nay conferred as dowry on the bride, the church of Würzburg, estates which, while staying with St. Boniface and frequenting the royal palace with him or going round the parishes, he had acquired long before, or had bought for a price into the right of his own property from freeborn men. From which it is abundantly clear how rashly Le Cointe asserts that nothing is read to have been done by Burchard before Boniface went to Pippin, being about to go to Rome together with Burchard, as indeed it pleased Egilward, even on the testimony of the very Egilward whom he cites.

[9] which, while on the Roman journey Further, Egilward hints at nos. XI and 12 that Burchard, when he came to Boniface, was of manly age and adorned with the priesthood: moreover Egilward says that, when Boniface prophesied that he would be raised to the episcopal dignity, he answered: I indeed, even if I truly profess that I am not fit for that which you speak, nevertheless do not struggle against the burden, whatever is imposed on me by your Holiness: which indeed show, according to Egilward's mind, that Burchard already then numbered thirty or more years of his age. The same mind also was the anonymous's, who at no. 3 introduces Boniface speaking thus of Burchard the newcomer: Rejoice, brethren, behold, the Lord has sent a man, a comrade, to whom the Lord's sheepfold gathered in the city of Würzburg by Blessed Kilian ought to be committed: but at no. 4 he says that he was a young man when he first came to Boniface; where Boniface, commending Burchard to Pope Zachary as one to be raised to the mitre of Würzburg, is introduced saying that he had come in youthful age from the western parts, and, living with him up to perfect age, he had found nothing in him that might seem contrary to the pontifical office. By which words indeed is confirmed what I said above, namely that Burchard performed apostolic duties for some time before Boniface went to Pippin, mayor of the palace, being about to go to Rome together with Burchard, as indeed Egilward writes. But what he says in the latter place about the youth of Burchard coming into Germany not only seems not to cohere sufficiently with what he had said at no. 3; but also that St. Burchard was either still a young man about the year 725, or numbered only about 30 years in the year 741, in which Zachary began to preside over the Church, is altogether repugnant to the rest of the history of St. Burchard's life, from what is to be said below. Nor is what both biographers write true, that Boniface, with Burchard as companion, went to Rome and to Pope Zachary. For we have ascertained from Willibald, in the Life of St. Boniface, volume 1 of June, page 464, no. 22, that he set out to Rome first to Gregory the second and earlier than the last (Gregory III). Again, in the year 723, to the same Gregory II, by whom he was then created bishop, ibid., page 466, nos. 30 and 32. Thirdly, finally, to Gregory III, page 468, no. 30, by whom he was made archbishop. But it is never read in his more ancient Lives that he gave himself again at any other time to a Roman journey, and they would not have kept silent about that fourth Roman journey, nor about the causes for which it had been undertaken.

[10] he waters with uninterrupted sweat, he is enriched with some estates. From the time when St. Burchard came into Germany, about the year 725 from what has been said, what notable things he did until he was adorned with the pontifical mitre, neither the anonymous writer of his Life nor Egilward has clearly disclosed: yet it is not to be doubted that he applied himself vigorously to apostolic labours and by them paved for himself the way to the episcopal dignity, as can be gathered both from the words of Egilward cited above and from the donations made to him by the princes of the Franks at that time; among which some more recent writers, as Ignatius Gropp notes, part 1, chapters 4 and 5, relate Norlach, granted to him by Charles Martel; and others Murbach, Homburg, Murrhardt and Schlüchtern: that in the former place Burchard instituted schools for instructing youth; that he watered northern Franconia with his sweat, from which, when at times, wearied, he rested, he was wont to hide himself in the Buchonian forest, in a place named Burchardrod, that is, Burchard's rest, some leagues distant from Kissingen, and so called because there, as the inhabitants think, he was wont to restore his lost strength; and finally that he cultivated friendship with St. Amor, abbot of Amorbach, and held frequent consultations on promoting the Christian cause. Gropp judges that Amorbach is to be excepted from the places given to St. Burchard, as having been granted to St. Pirmin by Ruthard, count of Frankenberg. The rest he judges were given to St. Burchard either by Charles Martel or by his sons Pippin or Carloman; not by Charles the Great: but it would have to be attributed to Pippin if credence were to be had in a corrupt charter of Charles the Great, given in the 20th year of his reign, by which he confirms Neustadt, Homburg, Amorbach, Schlüchtern and Murrhardt to the see of Würzburg: for these words are read in it: We, therefore, grant these things asked to Burchard (to whom our parent Pippin had assented concerning these places, he being not yet then bishop) and to his successors. At the end of the charter there are signed as witnesses Pope Zachary and Archbishop Boniface, who had indeed then long since departed from the living. Add to these that from the death of Charles Martel, which happened in the year 741 on the Ides of October, not Pippin but Carloman administered the kingdom of Austrasia; and that in the same year Burchard was ordained bishop, as we shall presently see; and so that a time can scarcely be found in which Carloman made these donations to Burchard, not yet, namely, a bishop.

§ II. St. Burchard becomes bishop of Würzburg: he partly confers, partly acquires various goods for his church: he founds a church for SS. Kilian and companions, and twice translates their relics.

St. Burchard, at least from the year 742, as from the council of Les Estinnes, For about 17 years already St. Burchard had watered Franconia with apostolic sweat when, as St. Boniface had prophesied at his coming, he was made first bishop of the see of Würzburg; for St. Kilian, who had earlier watered the same field with his blood, had nowhere had a fixed see. Burchard, therefore, according to our reckoning, was ordained bishop of Würzburg not later than the year 742: but Egilward is opposed to this reckoning, who writes that it was done in the year 751, whom the author of the Chronicle of Würzburg, edited by Baluze in volume 1 of the Miscellanea, page 502, the Saxon Annalist and the abbot of Ursperg follow: the author of the Frankish Annals in Freher, Marianus Scotus, Lambert of Hersfeld and Sigebert are opposed, who relate that Burchard was ordained in the year 746. But for the ordination of St. Burchard made not later than the year 742 stand the words of Carloman in the council of Les Estinnes, celebrated in the year 743 on the Kalends of March at Liptinae in the territory of Cambrai, in which were confirmed the canons of the council held in the year 742, words in the preface of the council of Les Estinnes, which run thus: I, Carloman, duke and prince of the Franks, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 742, namely on the eleventh day before the Kalends of May, with the counsel of the servants of God and of the nobles, have gathered to a council and synod, for the fear of Christ, the bishops who are in my kingdom, with the priests, that is, Archbishop Boniface, and Burchard, and Regenfrid, and Wintanus, and Witbald (otherwise Willibald), and Dadanus, and Eddo, and the other bishops with their priests.

[11] of St. Boniface, We have, then, Burchard as bishop already from the year 742; but attached to the see of Würzburg? Zachary had succeeded Gregory III in the month of December of the year 741; having congratulated him on the summit of supreme dignity by a letter presently written to him (132 in Serarius), and having testified his obedience towards the Apostolic See, Boniface continues thus: We have need also to indicate to your Paternity that, by the grace of God, having somewhat traversed the peoples of Germany, we have ordained three bishops, and have divided the province into three dioceses, and we desire, praying, that those three towns or cities in which they have been established and ordained be confirmed and established by writings of your authority. We have decreed that one see of the episcopate should be in the castle which is called Würzburg; and another in the town which is named Büraburg; the third in the place which

is called Erfurt, which was already of old a city of pagan rustics. There had likewise succeeded Charles Martel, who died in the month of October of the same year as Zachary succeeded, his son Carloman, who, when he had signified to Boniface that he wished to celebrate a synod, Boniface asked in the same letter that this might be done with the good leave of the Pontiff; as it was in fact celebrated, in a place of Germany indeed uncertain, but in the year 742, from the preceding number, and confirmed in the following year in the synod of Les Estinnes. Zachary assented to Boniface's requests by a letter (142 in Serarius) given on the Kalends of April, in the reign of the most pious lord Constantine Augustus, crowned by God, great emperor, in the twenty-fourth year of the empire, in the XI indiction, or X, as Baronius warns, since that letter was written before the synod of Les Estinnes, which was celebrated in the XI indiction.

[12] and from the letters of Pope Zachary In the year 742, therefore, a bishop had already been ordained at Würzburg: and that he was no other than St. Burchard is made out from the letter of Zachary (133 among those of Serarius) written to Burchard himself in the same year and on the same day as that just mentioned to Boniface; which, because it is honourable to our saint, I transcribe here entire. To our most beloved Burchard, of the holy church of Würzburg, Zachary, pope. The Lord working with us and confirming the word for spreading the law of Christianity and for teaching the path of the orthodox faith, according to what this Roman Church preaches, over which by God's authority we preside, our most holy and most reverend brother and fellow-bishop Boniface has made known to us that he has lately decreed and ordained episcopal sees in the parts of Germany, where your Dilection presides, and has divided the province into three dioceses. Learning this, with great exultation, our palms stretched out to the stars, we gave thanks to the enlightener and giver of all good things, the Lord God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who "maketh both one." And the already said most holy man has requested of us by his syllables that your sees be confirmed by apostolic authority. For which we also, with ardent mind and divine help, by the authority of Blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, to whom was given by God and our Saviour Jesus Christ the power of binding and loosing the sins of men in heaven and on earth, confirm, and sanction that your episcopal sees remain firm, forbidding by the authority of the prince of the Apostles himself, to all from the present and into future generations, that anyone dare to act against that same ordination of yours which, God deigning, has been made in you by our precept.*

[13] is shown, And forbidding this, that anyone dare, according to the tradition of the holy canons, to be translated thither from another bishopric, or to ordain a bishop after your calling from this world, except him who shall represent our Apostolic See in those parts. But neither presume one of you to invade the dioceses of another, or to withdraw churches. For if, which we do not believe, there shall be anyone who with rash daring attempts to come against this our precept, let him know that by the eternal judgement of God he is bound by the bond of anathema. But if anyone shall have kept the apostolic precepts and attained the norm of the right and orthodox faith, may he obtain the grace of blessing. For the rest, we beseech the divine clemency that it may confirm and strengthen that which the Lord has wrought in you: and may the charity of God, grace, and true peace be with your spirit. Most holy and most beloved to us, labour with all effort for the faith of Christ, and strive to fulfil His ministry: that with the eminent Apostle you may deserve to say: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As for the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me in that day." Greeting you in the Lord, we wish you to fare well. Farewell. Given on the Kalends of April, in the reign of the lord Constantine, great emperor, in the twenty-fourth year, in the 2nd year of his empire (from the death of his father), in the XI indiction; in the year 743. Thus runs the letter of Zachary, written in the same tenor to several bishops at the same time. At least Zachary wrote a similar one to Witta, or Albuinus, bishop of Büraburg in Hesse, which is 131 in Serarius.

[14] nay, from the year 741 From the two monuments just adduced, to which I do not see what solid thing can be opposed, it is proved that St. Burchard was ordained bishop of Würzburg not later than the year 742, and indeed not by Zachary but by Boniface himself; which I wish to be understood thus, that he was then not merely designated or elected, but also consecrated; and that from the year 741. This is proved partly from the German Council, which was held in the year 742 on the eleventh day before the Kalends of May, or the 21st of April, partly from the nun of Heidenheim who wrote the Life of St. Willibald, her contemporary and kinsman: for in the former St. Willibald, bishop of Eichstätt, is listed by name by Carloman among the bishops of that council (you have the words above at no. 10), so that Willibald must have been bishop in the month of April of the year 742. And the nun of Heidenheim, volume 2 of July, page 511, no. 42, speaks thus of the time at which he was consecrated bishop: St. Willibald, when he was consecrated to the episcopate, was forty-one years old. And then it was the autumn season … three weeks before the feast of St. Martin, as she adds a little after; that is, at the end of October: St. Willibald, therefore, had been consecrated bishop already from the year 742; but by whom? And immediately after he came thither (Willibald into Thuringia), says the nun in the same place, no. 41, St. Boniface the archbishop (afterwards made so), and Burchard and Wizo consecrated him by ordaining him to the authority of the episcopate. Burchard himself, therefore, had already then been consecrated bishop, not a regionary bishop attached to no certain see, but of Würzburg, from the letters of Pope Zachary given above. The tradition of the people of Eichstätt indeed holds that St. Willibald was given to them as bishop in the year 745; but for the year 741 stands a far greater authority.

[15] consecrated bishop of Würzburg, To the same year Mabillon ties the beginning of St. Burchard's episcopate, in the third Benedictine century, part 1, in the Observations prefixed to the Life of St. Burchard, page 699, touching briefly on what we have already said; where he also mentions the encyclical letters from Zachary to the bishops of Gaul and Germany, sent, he says, at the beginning of his pontificate, which are also addressed to Burchard, bishop of Würzburg, in Serarius, Epistle 136: but since they are likewise addressed also to Reginfrid, bishop of Rouen, and Epistle 144 mentions Grimo, Reginfrid's predecessor, as still surviving among the living, and it was written in the 3rd year of the emperors Artabasdus and Nicephorus, 743 of the common era, Reginfrid perhaps began to occupy the see of Rouen some years later, and Zachary wrote this letter to Boniface. Mabillon likewise mentions the letter (19) written in the name of several bishops of Germany to Æthelbald, king of the Mercians, at the front of which St. Boniface, and then, some being interposed, Burchard and Willibald follow: by these letters those bishops strive to call Æthelbald away from certain grave vices in which he was entangled: led by a similar zeal Boniface also wrote to Cuthbert, archbishop of Canterbury, a letter on correcting the vices of the English, among those of Serarius 105; so that both seem to have been written at the same time; and indeed before the council of Clovesho celebrated in the year 747: for Boniface writes, among other things, these in the latter letter to Cuthbert: We have decreed that every year each bishop go round his diocese, to confirm the people and teach the common folk, and to search out and forbid pagan observances, the filthinesses of the gentiles (Spelman reads of the impious), diviners or sorcerers, auguries, amulets, incantations, or all the filthinesses of the gentiles; which are read in great part in the same words in the third canon of the same council: whence again it appears that Egilward and his followers in this matter are deceived when they relate that he entered upon the see of Würzburg only in the year 751. I proceed to the deeds of St. Burchard, now bishop of Würzburg.

[16] partly his own, The things notably done by St. Burchard, once raised to the see of Würzburg, the anonymous related very sparingly; and he thought it enough to commend him for the watchful care of his flock, his meekness, his zeal for prayer, his liberality towards the needy, and his remarkable beauty of body even in old age: but he brings forward no particular deed, if you except what is said about the relics of SS. Kilian and companions, martyrs, raised up by him. Egilward indeed gives more; but with little order: we shall try to follow the order of the deeds, as far as we shall be able to attain it by conjecture. And first indeed we have already seen above that in the year 741 St. Willibald was consecrated by Burchard as bishop of Eichstätt. Further, in the same year or the following, he showed himself munificent to the church of Würzburg, or Herbipolis: And so the village which is called Michelstadt, which Prince Carloman had formerly handed over to him into his own right, he himself confirmed by legitimate investiture to the holy martyrs (Kilian and companions). Likewise also Homburg, and many other allods, which he had received in various places from noble men by whatever agreement, he invested to the relics of the same martyrs before many faithful witnesses and the princes of all the Eastern Franks, says Egilward at no. 27. He had premised that St. Burchard long before, while he was still staying with St. Boniface, had conferred on his church as dowry various estates acquired either by price or by donation of the Frankish nobles. The adverbs long before and formerly, used by Egilward, signify that those estates of Michelstadt and Homburg were of Burchard's right before his pontificate. But Carloman did not preside over Austrasia except after the death of his father Charles Martel, which happened in the year 741; who seems to be substituted here for Carloman. Nor would Egilward have mentioned Carloman here for any other reason than that he believed Burchard was raised to the see of Würzburg only in the year 751. Perhaps Carloman confirmed to Burchard what he had acquired in the time of his father Charles Martel. Further, Eckhart, Francia Orientalis, book 23, no. 4, supplies this account of both places: The village of Michelstadt, or, as it was formerly pronounced, Michilunstad, was situated in the district of Plumgeve on the river Mimling; now it is a town of the county of Erbach. An exchange perhaps having been made, the place afterwards returned to the emperor Louis the Pious, who gave it "to his faithful Einhard and Imma his wife"; but Einhard granted it to the monastery of Lorsch, as we understand from the Chronicle of Lorsch… Hohenburg or Homburg is a stronghold of our prince and bishop, situated not far from Gemünden and at the confluence of the Saale and the Main.

[17] partly received from elsewhere But from whomever the donation of the village of Michelstadt proceeded, Burchard certainly called forth the munificence of Prince Carloman towards himself and his church, recently adorned with an episcopal see. Eckhart, in the book cited, no. V, brings forward a clear testimony of this matter from the charter both of Louis the Pious of the year 823 and of King Arnulf of the year 889, where it is read that he gave to St. Burchard the cells, or monasteries, and churches which follow: The basilica built in the castle of Würzburg in honour of St. Mary, with the things pertaining to it;

and in the district of Worms the basilica of Blessed Mary the Virgin in the village of Nierstein, above Mainz, situated on the left bank of the Rhine; the church of St. Remigius at Ingelheim; the church of St. Martin at Cruciniacum (Kreuznach); in the district of Moengove (Maingau) the basilica of St. Peter in the village of Autmunstat or Umstadt: in the district of Neckargeuve the basilica of St. Martin in the village of Lauffen and the basilica of St. Michael in the village of Heilbronn, with things pertaining to them: in the district of Weingarteiba the basilica of St. Martin in the village of Burcheim, with things pertaining to it: in the district of Mulachgeue (Mulachergau) the basilica of St. Martin in the castle of Hochheimerburch: in the district of Dubrageue (Dubrachergau or Taubergau) the basilica of St. Martin in the village of Koningeshova with its appurtenances, and the basilica of St. Martin in the village of Sueigra (or Surigra). In the district of Ranigeue the basilica of St. Martin in the village of Windesheim: in the district of Gollacgeve the church of St. John the Baptist in the village of Gollahova: in the district of Iphigeue (Iphofergau) the basilica of St. Martin in the village of Wielantesheim (or Willandsheim), the basilica of St. Remigius in the village of Dornheim; the basilica of St. Andrew the Apostle in the village of Kircheim, and the basilica of St. John in the village of Iphehoua: in the district of Folcfeld the basilica of St. John in the village of Heritindeheim: in the district of Badanahgeue (Badenachergau) the basilica of St. Martin in the village of Konigeshoua and the basilica of St. Remigius in the village of Sundernhoua: in the district of Grapfelda the basilica of St. Martin in the village of Eichesfeld, and the basilica of St. Peter in the village of Konigeshova: in the district of Westergeue the basilica of St. Martin in the village of Brende, and the basilica of St. Martin in the village of Melrichstadt: in the district of Salageue (Saalgau) the basilica of St. Martin in the village of Hammelburg, and the monastery built in the village which is called Carleburg, with all things justly and legally pertaining to this place. The castle of Karlburg is situated in the bishopric of Würzburg, not far from the town of Karlstadt on the river Main.

[18] he gives to his church; Egilward also tacitly mentions these donations at no. 27 in the following words: Moreover, for the supplement of the new pontificate and the amplification of ecclesiastical worship, and also for the sustenance of the clergy, both future and present, there was conferred on St. Kilian by royal munificence the castle which is called Carloburg, with the royal fisc and all the revenues pertaining to it. And this same tradition the metropolitan pontiff Boniface, together with the princes and counts of King Pippin discharging an embassy, duly confirmed to St. Kilian by royal testament and also by privileges of the apostolic prelate; and to Blessed Burchard, the present bishop, he bounded dowries and tithes, and the churches contiguous to his see, into his new diocese. If it is permitted to interpret Egilward thus, that King Pippin confirmed Karlburg, previously given to the church of Würzburg by Carloman, his words can stand; but if he is to be understood thus, that that donation was made by Pippin when already king, and that the boundaries of the diocese of Würzburg were then first established by St. Boniface, he would not have spoken so except from the false opinion by which he believed that St. Burchard entered upon the see of Würzburg only in the year 751. For the rest, not all the things that are enumerated here seem to have been given to the church of Würzburg either by Carloman or at the same time; but some, given by others, were confirmed by that prince, and increased in the course of time; as will appear from what will be said below about the castle of Würzburg, mentioned in the first place at no. 17: meanwhile I wish this to be observed here, that it is opposed to the opinion of Egilward, by which he determines that Burchard was made bishop of Würzburg in the year 751, if these donations, as the charters of Louis the Pious and King Arnulf cited by Eckhart declare, were either made or confirmed by Carloman; inasmuch as he, having left the principate, had put on the monk already from the year 747.

[19] he raises up the relics of St. Kilian, Egilward treats of these donations, as we have said, at no. 27: now, so that the order of time may be kept, I must go back to no. 26, where his discourse is about the elevation, or, if you will, the first translation, of SS. Kilian, Coloman or Colonatus, and Totnan, martyrs. The bodies of these martyrs, slain secretly at Würzburg in the year 689 by order of Geilana, wife of Duke Gozbert, lay buried in the ground, a stable for horses built over them, as Egilward narrates in their Passion in our work, volume 2 of July, page 617: at that time a certain priest named Atalongus was teaching boys their letters at Karlburg, who hitherto, being a newcomer, did not know St. Kilian: wherefore, when the boys cried out: Kilian works signs; he ought to be taken up from the place in which he lies unworthily, he strove to check them from such outcry with threats; but, deprived of his sight, God wishing in that way to make known the merits of the holy martyrs to men, and taught where the remains of the saint lay hidden, he became a suppliant to him, recovered his sight, and reported the matter, as it had happened, to St. Boniface. Accordingly, by common counsel, SS. Boniface and Burchard and the other bishops of the province judged that the relics of St. Kilian and his companions should be raised up. Thus Egilward, the anonymous relating indeed the elevation itself, but keeping deep silence about Atalongus. In what year of Christ this elevation, or, if you will, translation, happened, the anonymous, who narrates this sole deed of St. Burchard, does not declare; but Egilward, at no. 26, says in the second year of his ordination; accordingly, by his mind, it must have been done in the year 752 or the following. The author of the epitaph of the same saint assigned the year 752 to the translation of St. Kilian made by St. Burchard; but he is perhaps no more ancient than Egilward, printed in Serarius, note 23 on the Life of St. Kilian, and in volume 3 of July, page 602, nos. 13 and 14; but he very probably spoke not of the first elevation, but of the third translation, by which the bones of St. Kilian and his companions were carried into the cathedral church, on the authority of Egilward; and so it does not prevent us, numbering the beginning of Burchard's episcopate from the year 741, from tying the first elevation of St. Kilian and his companions by St. Burchard to the year 742 or the following; if, as Egilward relates, St. Burchard began to treat of translating the relics of St. Kilian into a more honourable place in the second year of his ordination.

[20] the castle of Würzburg, from Irmina, About this year likewise we judge that the castle of Würzburg, set on the hill beside Herbipolis and the seat of the ancient dukes of Franconia, passed to the church of Würzburg, an exchange of Karlburg with the said castle having been made by St. Burchard: St. Burchard had assigned Karlburg, received as a gift from Carloman, to the church of Würzburg; where formerly St. Gertrude (but who she was has not been sufficiently ascertained, some devising one thing about her, others another) had founded a monastery for herself and the virgins following her in the ascetic life. Ymmina, niece of Gozbert, formerly duke of Franconia, and daughter of Hetan, Gozbert's son, surviving her father Hetan about the said year, was dwelling as a virgin with her handmaids in the castle of Würzburg, the ancestral seat of her family, already, as Egilward wrote, for forty-one years. But when she had heard that Karlburg had lately been given to the church of Würzburg, fearing the tumult of the multitude that would flock from all sides to St. Burchard at Herbipolis, she judged that her life and that of her followers would be more peaceful if it were granted her to pass what remained to her of life at Karlburg: Ymmina therefore went to the holy bishop, intending to ask for that place for herself while she lived; but on this condition, that after her death Karlburg should return into the right of the church of Würzburg. The condition pleased St. Burchard; and Ymmina passed the rest of her life there, until, she having been honourably buried there by St. Burchard, Karlburg returned by right of return to the right and possession of the church of Würzburg.

[21] from the progeny of the dukes of Franconia, Egilward narrates these things in book 2, chapter 4, below at no. 28: but he writes more about Gozbert and Hetan, or Heden, in the Life of St. Kilian, volume 2 of July, page 618, no. 18: These things having been done, he says, they say that Gozbert was slain by his own servants, and his son cast down from the principate, and their kinsmen and relatives suffered such things from their fellow-tribesmen that scarcely any dignity of the commonwealth remained to them in the same province. Nothing is read of Gozbert in the other and simpler Life of St. Kilian: but there, on page 614, no. 9, one may read this of Hetan: But the people of the Eastern Franks cast his son Hetan out of the kingdom. For they persecuted his progeny so much that not one of his stock remained. Notker, who died in the year 912, has almost the same things about Hetan as the simpler Life, at the eighth day of July. What Egilward narrates about Gozbert, slain by his servants after the martyrdom of St. Kilian, is suspect, both because both the simpler Life and Notker are silent about it, and because he seems to have drawn it only from popular tradition, and finally because there was no cause, at least on account of the death of St. Kilian and his companions, for slaying Gozbert, whose protector he had been. But there was some occasion for the Franconians to cast Hetan down from the principate: for Willibald, in the Life of St. Boniface, volume 1 of June, page 467, no. 35, seems to have written these things of Gozbert under the name of Theobald, and of his son under the name of Heden, assigning the cause of the diminution of the Christian religion in Thuringia: Because, the dominion of their kings declining (failing), a great multitude indeed of their counts, under the dangerous primacy of Theobald and Heden, who held over them the mournful sway of a tyrannical dukedom and a hostile rule of devastation rather than of devotion, was either cut off by bodily death through them or taken captive by hostile carrying off; and was so constrained by various evils that the rest of the crowd of the people which remained subjected itself to the principate of the Saxons. Which dominion of religious (or Christian) dukes ceasing, there ceased also in them the intention of Christianity and religion; which seem to signify, if not the expulsion of Hetan, certainly the end of his dominion and the turning of the people to other lords. This moreover appears strange: if, as Egilward writes, Gozbert was slain and Hetan cast down from the principate by the fury of the people; if, as is read in the other Life of St. Kilian, no one of their progeny remained surviving in the province, how did it come about that Ymmina, or Irmina, dwelt peaceably for forty-one years in the castle of Würzburg, the head of the whole region?

[22] concerning whom Egilward's statements are weighed, acquired What of truth and what of falsehood there is in these narrations of Egilward about Gozbert and Hetan is difficult to say: I suspect also that Irmina, when she exchanged the castle of Würzburg for Karlburg, was not of such an age that she could already have spent forty-one years for God in virginity in that castle, unless her father while living ceded this place to his daughter and her followers; inasmuch as he still held the dukedom of Franconia in the year 716, as the charter of Hetan or Heden teaches, expressed in these words in Martène, Amplissima Collectio, volume 1, column 22: I, in the name of God, the illustrious man Duke Heden, give from the present day, for the fear of God and my reward, and will that it be given in perpetuity, to the lord and father in Christ Willibrord,

in the domain which looks towards the castle of Hamulo, where I also think, by the mercy of God, through the counsel of the apostolic man himself, to build a monastery, on the western side, on the river Saale, in the district of Salvense, as well in fields as in meadows, pastures, woods, waters and watercourses: those very things which my father and mother left to me, with eight male and female slaves, however much I am seen to have there, I hand over and transfer wholly and entirely, that he may have free power in all things to do whatever he wishes therewith. But if anyone, which I do not believe will be, etc. Done publicly at the castle of Hamulo, in the 1st year of King Chilperic, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of May. Cato, count. Sigericus, count. I, the illustrious man Duke Heden, have willed the donation to be made, and have subscribed with Theodrada my wife. Ado, foster-father of Hedo, and Tiringus, son of Heden, Adogotus, Herericus. I, Richisus, cleric, being asked, have written and subscribed. Another charter of Heden occurs in the same place, column 13, signed at the castle of Virteburg in the year 704.

[23] dwells, and brings St. Kilian's relics there in the year 743, Scarcely had Ymmina, with the sacred virgins attached to her, withdrawn from the castle of Würzburg to Karlburg, when St. Burchard betook himself thither to fix his episcopal see there: for Egilward writes at no. 30 that this was done immediately after the event of the same exchange which Bishop Burchard had made with the noble bride of Christ Ymmina. There was a church there sacred to St. Mary, whence also that castle found the name of Marienberg: hither it seemed good to Burchard to translate the bodies of SS. Kilian and companions: Having called together on a certain day, says Egilward at the place just cited, both clergy and people, he caused the bodies of the martyrs, lately raised from the dust of the earth, to be carried with the greatest veneration up the oft-said hill, crowds of peoples accompanying; which was the first translation of St. Kilian and the companion martyrs made by St. Burchard: and since, from Egilward's words, little time intervened between the first elevation and this translation, we can tie it by probable conjecture to the year 743. It was indeed fitting that he should fix his episcopal see and lay up the relics of Kilian and his companions in that place where both the principal dwelling of the dukes of Franconia had been and the Christian religion had taken its beginning from the sweat of the holy martyrs: but the roughness of the hill, the steep ascent, and the scarcity of water brought it about that he neither built there the monastery which he had in mind, nor perceived that he should dwell there perpetually. But as he was doubting what place to choose for his see, a vision was presented to him as he prayed by night, in which he saw three candles going out from the hill and seeking the place where SS. Kilian, Coloman and Totnan had been slain, and thence returning again after some stay in that place.

[24] [which in the year 746, while he builds the cathedral church, he translates into a wooden church;] Thinking that he was admonished by God through that vision to build a cathedral church to these saints in that place, he set his hand to the work at once, having first built a little wooden church and brought into it the relics of the holy martyrs; which second translation (not counting the first elevation, by which they were carried into a sacred place nowhere, so far as I know, expressed) seems to be asserted for this reason, that Egilward relates that the relics of St. Kilian and his companions were kept in the castle of Würzburg for three years only (accordingly until the year 746), and the church of stone afterwards built by Burchard, which succeeded the wooden one, does not seem to have been completed in all its parts until some years had elapsed from the vision presented to St. Burchard. Egilward seems to indicate a third, and that the most celebrated of all, by which the bodies of the holy martyrs were brought back into the stone cathedral church, when he says at no. 31: which (cathedral church), first begun of wooden material, was afterwards brought to perfection with a more careful structure of stones by the holy pontiff of God, where also the bodies of the saints were brought back again and gloriously laid up in an elaborate sarcophagus. But of this, since it seems to have been done later, there will be discussion below. Concerning the church of St. Kilian which St. Burchard erected, these things are read in the Annals of Fulda, extending from the year 714 to the year 877, volume 7 of the Writers of the Affairs of Gaul, page 165, at the year 855: At Mainz (elsewhere, and indeed rightly, as the bishops Gozbert and Harnus or Arno mentioned below show, Würzburg) the earth is said to have trembled twenty times: an unwonted commotion of the air with whirlwinds and tempests, and many blows of hail, brought damage. Very many houses were burned by strokes of lightning, among which the basilica of St. Kilian the martyr was struck by a sudden stroke on the Nones of June, while the clergy were celebrating the evening lauds; and in a wonderful manner a hanging fire wandered under the panelled ceilings of the house, the material unharmed, until the bones of the holy martyr and the treasure of the whole church were carried out unharmed … but on the eighth day of the following month, the solemnity of the birthday of the same martyr being at hand, a terrible tempest suddenly arising utterly overthrew the walls of the church which the heavenly fire had not previously consumed. This ruin was followed by the death of Bishop Gozbald, who, in the third month thereafter, that is on the seventh day before the Kalends of October, ending the present life, left Harnus his disciple as his successor. Thus perished the church built by St. Burchard and consecrated to the Holy Saviour: it is today called the New Minster, and the tomb of St. Kilian is still seen in its crypt. about which time likewise he founds a Benedictine monastery, Near this place Arno built the new cathedral church.

[25] To the old cathedral church he added a monastery of monks, by whom, as Egilward writes at no. 41, at that time almost all ecclesiastical offices were administered irreproachably. But the stay of the monks in that monastery was not long: for Egilward writes at no. 47: There remained, however, at the monastery of St. Kilian more than fifty brethren, as we read elsewhere, whom also not long after Bernwelf, having expelled them with injuries, compelled to sail to their master Megingaud. This must have been done, by Egilward's reckoning, between the years 806 and 814: inasmuch as, after the renunciation of St. Burchard made, as he would have it, in the year 791, Megingaud ruled the church of Würzburg for 15 years; and thereafter Bernwelf for 7 years. But the Chronicle of Würzburg, edited by Baluze, ties the death of St. Burchard to the year 791, the death of Megingaud to the year 794, and the death of Bernwelf to the year 800. But both reckonings deceive, if Megingaud, as Egilward himself writes at no. 46, with Lull the metropolitan and Willebald, bishop of Eichstätt, cooperating with him in the same ordination, instituted Bernwelf as his successor. For Lull departed from the living about the year 786 (see Serarius, Rerum Moguntiacarum, book 4, page 377), as did Willibald (see volume 2 of July, page 491).

[26] And a charter was written, from which the epoch of his episcopate is confirmed. At the same time, at least about it (namely in the year 747), there was written the Charter of Notice concerning the boundaries and limits of the monastery of Fulda, situated in the diocese of Würzburg, from which it follows that St. Burchard sat at Würzburg at least from the year 744. Henschenius edited that charter from Christopher Brower, book 1 of the Antiquities of Fulda, chapter 4, in volume 1 of June, in the Bonifatian Analecta, chapter 2, page 490: at the end of which, after the signatures of St. Boniface, Bishop Burchard and the other witnesses, these words follow: In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 747, and in the 6th year of the principate of the noble men Karlmann and Pippin his brother, in the month of March, on the 22nd day, this charter of notice was written in the monastery of Fulda, first by Megenhelm the priest, by divine command and permission. And these words of Boniface in the text of the charter are to be noted: Therefore it has pleased us to note the same place, how it stands with fixed boundaries, and to confirm it below with suitable witnesses who were present at the tradition and investiture of that place by the aforesaid prince (Carloman). And this tradition was made and confirmed, as Henschenius and most other writers relate, in the year 744; at which, since Burchard was present and subscribed as diocesan bishop, it is again clear that all who determine that St. Burchard first occupied the see of Würzburg after the year 744 stray from the truth.

Otherwise VVirziburgensis*.

§ III. St. Burchard twice goes to Rome: he founds the monastery of St. Andrew: he leads St. Gumbert to a holier life: he translates the relics of St. Kilian: he bids farewell to the episcopate.

[From Rome, whither he had been sent by St. Boniface in the year 747 or the following,] Towards the end of the year 747, or the beginning of the following, Boniface sent St. Burchard to Zachary the Roman pontiff, to inform him of the state of the Christian religion throughout Germany: nor is there any doubt that he also applied himself to weighty affairs which would conduce to the progress of the Christian religion: as witness of this Roman journey undertaken by St. Burchard, although passed over in silence by Egilward, we have Zachary himself, Epistle 140 to Boniface, which has this beginning: Presented at the sacred thresholds of the blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, and before our eyes, the present Burchardt, our beloved bishop, brought the addresses of your fraternal Holiness, by whose written tenor we learned that you have a great struggle, and that your Fraternity labours with sweat in the preaching of the Gospel of Christ our God, etc. And it was written on the Kalends of May, in the reign of … Constantine (son of Leo the Isaurian) … in the 29th year, in the first indiction, of Christ 748. Having returned from Rome, in order that he might have a place where he could withdraw from the turmoil of affairs and give himself to God more tranquilly, he seems to have begun to build the monastery of St. Andrew on the Main, where the church of St. Burchard is now seen, below the hill of St. Mary, or the castle of Würzburg: Which, says Egilward, book 2, chapter 8, below at no. 33, consecrated also in honour of the holy Mother of God and of the holy Apostle Andrew, he endowed with so great a quantity of estates as would suffice for food and clothing for twelve brethren, canons, serving God as soldiers there; among which, as dowry, he granted to the same monastery the aforesaid hill of Würzburg with its estates and revenues, as he had acquired it from the daughter of the aforesaid Duke Hetan; and he established the same donation by the law of nations before all the chief men of the province. To the hill of Würzburg there were added from St. Burchard's munificence the parishes of Hocberg and Sonderhoff, besides other goods situated in Heidingsfeld, Buttelbrunn and Erburg, as Eckhart relates from Fries, book 23, no. 109.

[28] having returned, St. Andrew's Egilward indeed writes that canons inhabited the monastery of St. Andrew from the time of St. Burchard; but Mabillon, in the Annotations on the Life of St. Burchard, does not doubt that from its very beginning it fell to Benedictine monks. For why not here (were they first instituted, he says) if in the cathedral church? Why not rather canons in the city, monks in retirement? And if Egilward says that it was founded for canons, Mabillon judges that he did this because he knew indeed that it was inhabited by canons before the Benedictine monks, whom Egilward writes at no. 50 that Hugo substituted for the canons; but did not know that it was originally built for Benedictine monks. Perhaps Egilward, who had said that the cathedral church was served by Benedictine monks from

Burchard onwards had read was first granted, but that thence they were expelled by Bishop Bernwelf, found nowhere that the monastery of St. Andrew, of which it was a member, had met a like fate. Georg Eckhart, book 53, no. 109, treating of the monastery of St. Andrew, writes, following Egilward, that it was founded by St. Burchard for canons, no mention being made of Benedictine monks: but Father Ignatius Gropp, in the Life of St. Burchard written in the German tongue, part 2, chapter 5, writes from Fries that it was at first of the Benedictine Order: Brusch does the same in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Würzburg, page 165, writing thus of Hugo: He restored and remarkably adorned the monastery of St. Andrew, begun by the first bishop and built for monks of the Benedictine profession. If this is so, it becomes most probable that Bernwelf, bishop of Würzburg, third in order, substituted canons for these; of whom the same Brusch says: He expelled all the Benedictine monks from the church of Würzburg, maintaining only secular priests. These, following their lord and teacher Megingaud to Neustadt, were honourably received by him.

[29] he founds a monastery, and enriches it with the relics of St. Magnus, martyr: Further, St. Burchard laid up in the church of St. Andrew the relics of St. Magnus the martyr, of whom Egilward narrates at no. 34 some things from the account of the elders, and some from the writings of the monastery of St. Andrew; which it seemed good to Surius to omit, because the things which are narrated there were little ascertained by Egilward himself, that is, as Egilward himself says, known only from the account of others who had neither seen the matter nor heard it from those who had seen it. This chapter is likewise lacking in the Life of St. Burchard edited by Canisius, and from him by Mabillon; who, since he read only this in the Life of St. Burchard: He (St. Burchard) also laid up in the same basilica (of St. Andrew) with worthy veneration the body of a certain martyr named Magnus, thought, according to his usual zeal and diligence in illustrating the deeds of the saints, that he must inquire who this martyr Magnus was: and he found in Rudolf, the writer of the Life of Rabanus Maurus, that the relics of SS. Magnus, martyr, and Julian, deacons of Pope Sixtus, brought from Rome by the care of Rabanus into the monastery of Holzkirchen in the diocese of Würzburg, were deposited in the church of that monastery by Humbert, bishop of Würzburg. Mabillon therefore doubted whether the relics of St. Magnus, brought from Rome, were kept thence in the monastery of St. Andrew; and whether it had happened that Egilward had stumbled into a chronological error, which befell him more than once elsewhere. Mabillon would have spared himself this labour if he had had before his eyes chapter 9 of book 2 of Egilward's work. For, as Egilward narrates, but from the account of others, this Magnus, also called Andrew, an Englishman by nation, was a disciple of St. Burchard and a priest, who, sent by St. Burchard to correct the vices of his nation (probably at the same time at which we said above that St. Boniface, led by the same zeal of charity for his nation, gave letters to Æthelbald, king of the Mercians, that is, about the year 746, became a martyr; his body was then brought to St. Burchard; which one thing Egilward testifies that he drew from the monuments of the monastery of St. Andrew, and accordingly it can be believed somewhat more safely.

[30] he leads St. Gumbert to holiness, While the holy bishop applied himself diligently to founding churches for the supreme Deity and the honour of the saints and to promoting the affairs of his church, he no less profited the salvation of the sheep entrusted to him by word and by the example of a most holy life. Very many, says Egilward, book 2, chapter 10, below at no. 35, flocked together from all sides to the hearing of so great a teacher, of different sex, age and condition, every soul thirsting for the fountain of life. Chief among these was Gumbert, a noble, powerful and rich man, whom the companionship and teaching of St. Burchard led from military life to such holiness of morals that he both shone with miracles and obtained the public honours of the saints. His Acts you have long since illustrated by Sollerius, volume 4 of July, page 61 and following. Various things are indeed narrated of him, which, as they are foreign to the truth, so they have been refuted there, nor is it necessary to repeat them here. More nearly to our matter pertain the things which Egilward reports were done by him: And these are the possessions with which he largely enriched the bishopric of Würzburg, Eltimoin and Onoltesbach, each with its revenues and appurtenances; the former of which, though it was once a most strongly fortified castle, now (Egilward wrote about the borderline of the tenth and eleventh centuries) declares its magnificence by its ruins alone. It is now a town of the diocese of Würzburg, called by the Germans Eltmann, lying on the river Main, where the territory of Würzburg is divided from that of Bamberg.

[31] from whom, however, Ansbach, Egilward continues: And the following (our manuscript has Onoltesbach; Mabillon Ovelspach, Eckhart Onoldspach), which is now a provostry of canons, the testimony of that province, inherited from the elders through many generations hitherto, does not conceal to have been formerly a not undistinguished abbey. It is indeed sufficiently established that by the name Onoltesbach is to be understood the present-day Ansbach, a town of Franconia; but it has a difficulty that there is said to have been there, at the time when Egilward was living, a provostry of canons, and formerly a not undistinguished abbey; since Brusch writes of Henry, bishop of Würzburg, the first of this name: He founded (or, if you prefer, restored, enlarged, adorned) at Onoldsbach the magnificent Benedictine monastery of St. Gumbert, which in this our century is a college of secular canons. Shall I think that Egilward indeed committed both donations to writing, but added no account of either place; and that this was added to Egilward's words by an unskilled interpolator, who knew indeed what had been done about that abbey in his own age, but not what in the earlier age? By no means: but I would rather judge that Brusch slipped into error, who says that Benedictine monks were placed at Ansbach by Henry, which ought to have been said of canons. For thus the anonymous author of the Chronicle of Würzburg, subjoined by Eckhart in volume 1 of the Affairs of Eastern Francia, page 816, wrote in the fourteenth century: In the year of the Lord 1012, in the time of Henry II, emperor, duke of Bavaria, the aforesaid bishop Henry erected and founded the collegiate churches in Haug, of St. Stephen, and of Onolzpach; so that already then the church of Ansbach was one of canons.

[32] contrary to what Egilward writes, But let this be Brusch's error: nor is Egilward without his own, when he writes that the place Onoltelsbach, or Ansbach, was granted to St. Burchard by his companion St. Gumbert. Ansbach did indeed pass into the right of the church of Würzburg; but in the time of Bernwolf, third bishop of Würzburg: it was likewise a gift of Gumbert; but made to Charles the Great, from whom Bernwelf first acquired it for the church of Würzburg, an exchange of other places having been made with Hunrog, count of Charles the Great; and when I say this I rely on a charter of Louis the Pious of the year 837 kept in the archive of the church of Würzburg. From it we learn, says Eckhart, book 25, no. 117, reporting the words of the charter and explaining them with a few things interposed, that in the time of Charles, the most serene emperor (but then still king), Berowelp, bishop of Würzburg, having given certain things of the church to the fisc of the same Charles, his missus Count Hunrog intervening, received other things of the same value from the power of the fisc for the part of his church. And Bishop Berowelp gave, as was contained in the writings of the exchanges, from the things of his aforesaid bishopric, namely from the monastery of St. Kilian, to the aforesaid Count Hunrog, for the part of the lord Charles, the most excellent emperor, a certain basilica situated in the district called Graffelt, in honour of St. Martin, confessor of Christ (with all things pertaining to it), which Carloman, formerly the glorious prince, had conferred on the already said church of Würzburg (and afterwards other pious men had added).

[33] he did not receive as a gift: In compensation (for this church) Count Hunrog, by command of Charles, gave to the aforesaid Bishop Berowelp, for the part of the aforesaid bishopric, the things which a certain man (do not understand here a man of the common people, but a vassal of Charles, and he, as is clear from the gifts, a wealthy one) named Guntbert had legally delegated to the same Charles from the things of his own right through various districts and places, that is, in the district of Badanagani, in the village which is called Filihonbrunte (now Vilbrun), and in the district of Hrangaui, in the village called Bargilli (Bürgel), and in the same district, in a certain forest, the place which is called Onotesbach, and in the district which is called Tullifelt (in the places) named Fiscpach, Assia, Pontigerna, however much the aforesaid Guntbert was seen to have delegated in the same places to the lord Charles; and also those things which a royal servant named Richbert had possessed in the district of Wingarduueiba, in the places called Burcheim (and) Heinuuinesbach (Hammersbach), and which formerly Erenbert, bishop (of Freising), had held by benefice-right from the liberality of the king. Eckhart repeats almost the same things from the same charter in volume 2, book 29, no. 70, where the confirmation of the exchange is read as made on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of January, in the 24th year, by Christ's favour, of the empire of the lord Louis, most pious Augustus, in the XV indiction. Done at Aachen in the royal palace. Whatever, then, may be the case about the donation of the place of Eltmann made to St. Burchard by St. Gumbert, Egilward seems to have erred when he joined Ansbach to it; but that there was formerly an abbey there, before it became collegiate, Egilward can be believed when he cites the ancient monuments of the region; although when that abbey ceased is unknown.

[34] having discharged the Roman embassy St. Burchard likewise discharged another embassy, sent by Pippin, who was aspiring to the kingdom of Francia, to Rome to Zachary, together with Fulrad, abbot of St. Denis near Paris; which some tie to the year 749, others to 750 or 751: there are indeed those who hold this embassy of Pippin to Zachary among fables; but it is established by so many testimonies of ancient and more recent writers that Pagi, in the Critica on the Annals of Baronius at the year 351, judges that it cannot be called into doubt; where he proves it from chronographers and historians who lived either in that very century or in the one immediately following; from the words of the anonymous who wrote in the year 767, praised by Henschenius, volume 1 of June, page 487 and the following, and from the words of the continuator of Fredegar, who was likewise then living. Of the writers of the immediately following century I mention only two, because these mention St. Burchard by name: thus has the author of the Annals (from the year 741 to 814) of Frankish affairs, volume 5 of the Writers of the Affairs of Gaul, page 33, at the year 749: Burgard, bishop of Würzburg, and Folrad the chaplain were sent to Pope Zachary, asking concerning the kings in Francia who in those times had not royal power, whether it was well or not. And Pope Zachary sent word to Pippin that it was better that he should be called king who had the power than he who remained without royal power, so that order might not be disturbed. By apostolic authority, therefore, he commanded Pippin to be made king. The author of the Annals ascribed to Einhard, notary of Charles the Great, ibid., page 197, at the same year: Burchard of Würzburg

bishop, and Folrad, priest and chaplain, were sent to Rome to Pope Zachary, to consult the Pontiff, etc. This embassy of Burchard to Rome, which occurred towards the end of his life, Egilward placed before the other things done by him when already bishop, without expressing the year, because he knew that it was carried out about the year 750, but supposed, wrongly, that St. Burchard was first raised to the episcopal mitre in the year 751.

[35] Burchard's Roman embassy had the desired outcome: he has Pippin munificent towards him: and so a little after (in the year 751 or the following; for it is not agreed here among authors), Pippin, anointed king of Francia by St. Boniface, archbishop of Mainz, and then again by Stephen II, conferred the dukedom of Franconia on St. Burchard, as most relate; although Eckhart, who holds the journey of St. Burchard sent to Rome by Pippin, and the answer of Pope Zachary related above, for rumours spread among the people for the sake of avoiding or lessening the odium of the deposition of King Childeric, contends that the right of the sword and the government of the dukedom of Franconia was first granted to St. Burchard by Carloman, but afterwards confirmed by Pippin, Louis the Pious and Arnulf. Egilward indeed writes nothing about the dukedom of Franconia annexed to the see of Würzburg: but Adam of Bremen, a writer of the eleventh century, speaks thus on that matter, book 4, chapter 5: Our church could have been rich; our archbishop (Adalbert) could have had no cause to envy him of Cologne or of Mainz in all glory of things. The bishop of Würzburg alone was he who is said to have no partner in his bishopric. For he governs the dukedom of the province. Regino, a writer of the tenth century, recognizes the greatness of earthly piety in Rudolf, bishop of Würzburg, at the year 897. Pope Zachary likewise recognizes secular jurisdiction joined with episcopal, in Epistle 142 to Boniface, in which, answering Boniface, who asked whether it was proper to accept tax from the Slavs dwelling in the lands of Christians, that it was so, he says: For if they sit without tribute, they will claim the land itself also as their own. But if they give tribute, they know that the land itself has a "lord." And the Slavs of whom he speaks here had been received into Franconia, and had their seats between the rivers Main and Regnitz, and their care was committed to St. Burchard, as Willibald testifies in the Life of St. Boniface, volume 1 of June, page 469: But to Burchard (St. Boniface) delegated the office of dignity in the place which is called Würzburg; and he assigned to his office the churches on the borders of the Franks and Saxons and Slavs. The same secular power is revealed by the rights granted to the church of Würzburg by Carloman and King Pippin, the many districts or counties expressed in the charter of Arnulf of the year 889 and subject to the church of Würzburg. Thus, but more fully, Georg Eckhart, book 23, from page 391 to 400, whom one desirous of these things may consult.

[36] he again translates the relics of St. Kilian, After this second return of St. Burchard from Rome to his see, we think it probable that the third translation, more celebrated than the rest, of SS. Kilian and companions into the new cathedral church built of stone was instituted by him: for since, from what was said at no. 24, he seems to have translated the above-said relics in the year 746 into a little wooden building, to be kept there until the stone church should be built, several years probably elapsed before the bodies of the said martyrs were translated again by Burchard's work, as Egilward asserts at the number cited, into it, when it was now completed in all its parts. And we believe it not unlike the truth that this was done in the year 752; because five years or more would easily have been spent in building and completing the huge mass. There exists in the crypt of the New Minster an epitaph of the holy martyrs expressed in verse, in which these lines are read bearing on this translation:

*In seven hundred and fifty-two, By Boniface, with Burchard joined, These were raised, and duly canonized.*

I confess indeed that neither this epitaph nor Egilward himself is of great authority; but I have not been able to bring Egilward's statements about the various translations of these to a truer reckoning better. If anyone has better, he will bring it forward without my unwillingness. Sollerius also rolled this stone, in volume 2 of July, at the eighth day of the same month, § II of the Commentary prefixed to the Acts of SS. Kilian and companions; consult him, if you please.

[37] and, having laid down the mitre, St. Burchard had now grown old, as Egilward writes, and, wearing out with labours, not unaware that his last day was threatening, he began to consider, intending to pass what remained of his life with the episcopal burden laid down, whom he should choose as his successor with the consent of clergy and people: the most worthy of all seemed to him Megingaud, a man plainly worthy of that office, to whom, for the holiness of his life, Eckhart and others give the title of Blessed: him, therefore, he declared his successor; but in what year? Egilward writes that this was done after obtaining the approval of Lull, archbishop of Mainz and successor of St. Boniface; but from this it follows that St. Boniface went before St. Burchard by his example in abdicating the episcopate: but in this matter the authority of Wandelbert, who lived in the ninth century, is weightier: and he writes, in volume 2 of July, on the Miracles of St. Goar, chapter 1, no. 4, page 338, that Lull, archbishop of Mainz, Basinus, bishop of Speyer, and Mehingod, bishop of Würzburg, were ordained by St. Boniface: All of whom, he says, had been ordained by blessed Boniface, pontiff and martyr. Megingaud, therefore, was already occupying the see of Würzburg when Boniface, having laid down the mitre of Mainz, departed into Frisia to be crowned somewhat later with martyrdom, in the tenth year, as Eigil testifies in the Life of his teacher Sturm, first abbot of Fulda, in Mabillon, third Benedictine century, part 2, page 277, from the founding of the monastery of Fulda: and it was founded, as the same testifies in the same place, page 275, in the year of the Incarnation of Christ seven hundred and forty-four … in the first month (that is, March), on the twelfth day of the same. The tenth year of the monastery of Fulda from its foundation ran from the twelfth day of the month of March of the year 753 to the same day of the immediately following year. Col. 569F Megingaud, therefore, was bishop of Würzburg in the year 753, in which I think it most probable that St. Burchard renounced his see, yet so that Burchard's renunciation, contrary to what Egilward writes, preceded that of Boniface. Egilward relates at no. 38 that Burchard sent men to Charles the Great to ask from him in his name the faculty of renouncing the episcopate; but that King Pippin must be substituted for Charles, even if other things were lacking, the very reckoning of the time at which the renunciation was made dictates.

[38] He withdraws to Homburg. The episcopal burden having been transferred to Megingaud, intending to give the rest of his life to the contemplative life, he withdrew to Hohenburg (see above, no. 16). These things, then, being done, says Egilward, blessed Burchard strengthened with fatherly admonition, and sealed with divine blessing, the whole band of monks, by whom at that time almost all the ecclesiastical offices were administered irreproachably; and also the crowd of clerics and laymen of different condition, sex and age. After this, taking with him only six monks out of the whole multitude of his disciples, he went on board a ship: he also caused the books which he had either himself written or gathered from wherever to be carried with him: and thence by the course of the river (Main) he set out by boat to the castle which is called Hohenburg, and there, as long as he survived, persisting in divine contemplation, vigils, fasts and prayers, he continually stayed with the aforesaid brethren.

§ IV. St. Burchard, having set out to Homburg, dies holily there: his sacred cult.

The saint, after some stay at Homburg, there in the year, more probably, 754, Burchard had indeed had in mind to withdraw to the little village of Michelstadt (now a town in the county of Erbach), formerly given to him by Carloman, and to found a monastery there: But, divine predestination so disposing, says Egilward at no. 41, the setting of common hereditary mortality forestalled the wishes of human deliberation: and not long after, in the aforesaid castle (Hohenburg, now Homburg) he died, in the year (as Egilward says) of the Lord's Incarnation seven hundred and ninety-one, namely on the fourth day before the Nones of February, or the 2nd day of the same month. As regards the day of St. Burchard's death, which he could have known from elsewhere, I would not wish to raise a dispute with Egilward: but since, from what was said at no. 37, it is most probable that Burchard renounced the episcopate in the year 753, and not long after, having set out to Hohenburg, closed his day; while from elsewhere, as will presently be shown, it is ascertained that he departed from this life before St. Boniface (whose death the learned commonly tie either to the year 754 or to the following), we are compelled to dissent from Egilward and to tie his death more probably to the year 754. So we judge, both because St. Burchard renounced the episcopate in the year 753, from what was said above; and because, from Egilward, he died not long after; and finally because, as St. Liudger testifies in the Life of his master St. Gregory of Utrecht, who died in the year 776, St. Burchard passed from mortal to immortal life before St. Boniface: thus run the words of St. Liudger, volume 5 of August, page 258: Two of those chosen of God, Wigbert (abbot of Fritzlar) and Burchard, departed from the world before their master (St. Boniface). Schannat, in the Archivum Fuldense Vindicatum, page 46, in order to avoid the authority of St. Liudger, says that neither are all the disciples of St. Boniface known, nor is it certain, since there could have been two disciples of St. Boniface of this name, that St. Burchard, bishop of Würzburg, is treated of here. But St. Liudger does not there treat of any whatever of the helpers and disciples of St. Boniface, but, as he says beforehand, of the most illustrious preachers and pillars of the Church of God: each of whom illuminated his city and region by his examples and teaching, like Lucifer rising in the morning. Such a Burchard would certainly have been known, if there was any other than ours: but in what hiding-places did he live? St. Liudger adds: But were they not without the palm of their election, since they deserved to precede their master to the heavenly kingdoms, and in their regions are held for saints of God, and are venerated by all who were able to know their life and virtue with God? What region, what city had Burchard, the disciple of St. Boniface, and venerated him thereafter as a saint, other than St. Burchard, whom the church of Würzburg afterwards venerated with public cult and venerates to this day? For it is altogether to be believed that that veneration, at the beginning perhaps only private, afterwards passed into public, as in the case of Wigbert, who is venerated on the 13th of August, so also in that of Burchard.

[40] Mabillon, in the Annotations on his Life, determines that St. Burchard died about the year 751, he dies, not, as Egilward writes, in 791; following partly St. Liudger, who writes that Burchard died before Boniface; partly Marianus Scotus, who prolonged Burchard's episcopate to nine years only. But that St. Burchard prolonged his life beyond the year 751 we have already seen above. Marianus Scotus, a writer of the eleventh century, assigns a double epoch to St. Burchard's episcopate, one of his ordination in the year 746, the other of his consecration made, as he indeed thinks, in the year 750: if nine

years you number from Burchard's ordination, Marianus does not dissent from us as to the year of his death except by one year: but if from his consecration, he would have died, by his mind, about the year 759; in which matter he has St. Liudger, cited above, opposed to him, whose authority and antiquity in that matter are greater. But as regards Egilward, when he puts off the last year of St. Burchard to the year 791, and attributes to him forty years of episcopate, he sins more grossly. For it is established that Lull, archbishop of Mainz, departed several years before the year 791, namely in the year 786 or the following. But, as Wandelbert testifies, volume 2 of July, page 338, there were sent by Charles the Great to consecrate the basilica of Prüm Lull, archbishop of Mainz… Basilius of Nemetum Speyer, … and Mehingod, bishops of the city which is situated beyond the Rhine and in the barbarous tongue is called Wirziburg. Mabillon refers that consecration of the basilica of Prüm, volume 2 of the Annals, page 216, no. 21, to the year 768; and the beginnings of the monastery to the year 763; and the same Megingaud subscribed the charter of its foundation, which may be read in the cited Mabillon, page 705. But according to Egilward St. Burchard died a little after the episcopate was transferred to Megingaud: this therefore happened several years before 791. Moreover Megingaud, already bishop, wrote letters to Archbishop Lull, among the Bonifatian ones 80, 87 and 94. That Megingaud already acted as bishop at Würzburg from the year 758 is likewise clear from the nun of Heidenheim, author of the Life of St. Wunibald, her contemporary, in which, in Mabillon, third century, part 2, page 184, she says of him: And then (three years' intervals before he departed from the world (and he departed in the year 761)) as he could, he came to the city which is called Würzburg, and there spoke with Bishop Megingaud, and remained there three days. Nay, Egilward himself, below at no. 46, as if forgetful of what he had said before, says that Bernwelf, third bishop of Würzburg, was ordained by Lull and Willibald, of whom the former died about the year, as we have said, 786, and the latter about the year 781, and by Megingaud, after Megingaud had presided over the church of Würzburg for fifteen years: how, then, could Burchard at the same time have died about the beginning of Megingaud's episcopate, and at the same time have prolonged his life until the year 791?

[41] but is buried at Würzburg; Schannat, in the Archivum Fuldense Vindicatum, page 46, no. 6, believes he has proved that SS. Boniface and Burchard in the year 755, in the month of June, at Attigny in Champagne, subscribed a charter, which he exhibits at the end of the cited work, plate 3, given by Pippin in the month of June in the first year of his rule after he had been crowned by Pope Stephen: but, if that charter is genuine, the first year of King Pippin mentioned there is the year of the first coronation made by St. Boniface, who in the year 755, in Frisia, while wholly engaged in converting the pagans there, underwent martyrdom, as Willibald testifies in his Life, on the Nones, or the 5th day, of the same month of June. Megingaud, having brought back the body of his predecessor from Hohenburg to Würzburg, buried it with a huge concourse and veneration of the people beside the relics of the martyrs Kilian and his companions, says Egilward at the end of book 2.

[42] held indeed always as a saint, but especially Such was the esteem of men concerning St. Burchard's holiness and merits with God immediately after his death that he was already then held and venerated as a saint by those who had known the man, as St. Liudger testifies in the Life of St. Gregory of Utrecht, in the words given at no. 37: the nun of Heidenheim also calls him a saint, in the Life of St. Willibald, a contemporary of the saint of whom she writes. But that esteem and veneration of whatever kind was perhaps only private: in the lapse of time, however, he was entered in the ecclesiastical tables, at least from the ninth century, as he who in the Addition to the Martyrology of Bede, from a codex of the library of the cathedral of Würzburg of the ninth century, related by Eckhart in volume 1 among the Historical Monuments, page 829, is marked at the 14th day of October in these words: On the 2nd day before the Ides of October, of St. Burchard, bishop of Würzburg: unless these are to be numbered among those things which Eckhart warned were added to this codex by a hand of the eleventh century. However that may be, he certainly began to enjoy public and legitimate cult from the time when Hugo, bishop of Würzburg, licence having been asked and obtained from the Roman Pontiff, translated the sacred remains with solemn rite and very honourably from the church of St. Kilian to the monastery of St. Andrew, once founded and inhabited by the saint, as Egilward, not much removed from the event, narrates more fully towards the end of his work.

[43] after, about the year 984, a translation of his relics was made To what year that translation ought to be referred is not easy to say: the Chronicle of Würzburg edited by Baluze ties the death of Poppo II, Hugo's immediate predecessor, to the year 984; another, edited by Eckhart, to the year 979; Trithemius, in the Chronicle of Hirsau emended by second thoughts, to the year 982. I for my part lay down this first, that Poppo II was not among the living beyond the month of July of the year 983. For Hugo obtained the licence of translating the relics of St. Burchard from the Roman Pontiff Benedict, the seventh of this name, as the reckoning of time proves. And Benedict died in the year 984 on the 10th day of July: Poppo on the 22nd or 23rd day of the same month, concerning which month there is complete agreement not only among the chronicles just cited but also among the four catalogues of the bishops of Würzburg edited by Gropp in volume 1 of the Writers and Affairs of Würzburg, page 817 and following. Further, the 22nd or 23rd day of the month of July could not be Poppo's death-day of the year 984: for in this way Benedict would have died before Poppo, and his successor could not have obtained the above-said licence from Benedict, already dead, which is opposed to Egilward's statements. From which it follows that Poppo did not prolong his life beyond the month of July of the year 983, as I was saying a little before. Next, as I hold most probable, that Hugo entered upon the see of Würzburg, if not from the year 982, as Trithemius says, at least from the year 783; soon, a Benedictine colony having been substituted for the canons, applied himself to reforming and endowing the monastery of St. Andrew, and meanwhile, with the leave of the Roman Pontiff, the bones of St. Burchard having been translated thither, entered him in the roll of the saints, according to the custom of that age, about the year 984.

[44] his relics: For the rest, not content with these things, Hugo decreed moreover that the memory of this translation should be celebrated every year on the fifth feria after the feast of St. Dionysius: hence in the ancient breviaries of the church of Würzburg these verses are read:

*Burchard's day is kept on the Thursday After Dionysius; so you cannot well be deceived.*

Hence in the Würzburg Breviary of the year 1575 a rubric of this kind is prefixed to the proper Office of St. Burchard: The feast of St. Burchard always falls on the fifth feria (or fifth day) next after Dionysius (he is venerated on the 9th of October), to be celebrated through the whole diocese of the church of Würzburg, and it is celebrated solemnly. Hugo, moreover, says Egilward at no. 52, with the counsel and consent of his clergy decreed, and confirmed by the ban of pontifical authority, that thenceforth on the fifth feria (after the feast of St. Dionysius, celebrated on the 9th day of October) the solemnity of the same translation should be celebrated; and that on the three preceding days, the second, third and fourth feria, there should be abstinence from the eating of meat throughout the whole bishopric: a synod also should be held by the bishop with all the clergy, and so, the council being finished, wax of the price of two pennies should be offered by each parishioner at his relics.

[45] the ancient sacred cult of the saint, I have in my hands the Würzburg Missal of the year 1509, in which at the aforesaid day this Mass is prescribed: Introit: Statuit. Collect: Deus qui populo, etc., from the Common of Doctors. Epistle: Ecce Sacerdos. Gradual: Ecce sacerdos magnus. Verse: O triumphant Burchard, kindly and life-giving bishop, by thy prayer lead us from death, from the path and from the valley of this raging world, to the pleasant supper of the Lamb of heavenly paradise. Sequence: Let the company of the world sing gladly, filled with sacred faith. In hope of reward he took up the summit of so great a see of pastoral burden. In it he duly led a model of holy life of the sacred Deity. O wondrous power of Christ, who bids Burchard be set in the station of the episcopate, thus by prophetic speech. The man of God Boniface contemplates him and speaks thus: God has sent us such a man, a comrade. By whom the fine sheepfold in the city of Würzburg must now thus be ruled and subdued, of the Catholic crowd. This prelate given to us duly began to restore for us the true way. And of all vices, through the shield of the virtues, to lift the heavy burden. Thus Kilian planted that which Burchard watered: God gave the increase. Behold thus, error driven from the vineyard of Christ, the wild grape of ancient grief gives way. Through these worshippers of Christ errors have been rooted out, and the vineyard of the Lord brings forth flowers of virtues. In whose sacred cultivation, divine care being added, pure medicine of salvation is given to men. Truly it befits to sing, to loosen the harp of the flesh, to this patron of immense merit. Sound, sing, and, leaning on him, rejoice, applaud, harmonize, O band of clergy in the city of Würzburg. For worthy of all praise this kindly father shone, snatched from the whirlwind of this world. With pious face he fed the sick, and so overcame the world: today he has attained the kingdom of life. Where the honey-flowing savours, and the sweet-flowing and Seraphic euphony sounds. May this patron by his prayer join us to the companions above, to the angelic cohorts. Grant, O Burchard, that we may run not slowly in the race, but unwearied may be brought to the heavenly prize. Gospel: Homo quidam peregre proficiscens. Offertory: Posuisti Domine. Secret: The offerings, O Lord, dedicated to Thee by the merits of blessed Burchard Thy confessor. Communion: Domine quinque talenta. Postcommunion:* O God, rewarder of faithful souls, grant that by the prayers of blessed Burchard, Thy confessor and pontiff, whose venerable festivity we celebrate, we may obtain indulgence. Through our Lord.

[46] ancient, The Office of the choir in the Würzburg Breviary of the year 1575 praised above ran thus: Lessons 1 and 2 from the Legend of the saint, as also the antiphons and responsories at the psalms. Antiphon at First Vespers: The festive day is here, to be awaited with all prayers by all: the solemnity is here, to be embraced with our whole desire, in which St. Burchard has been joined to the citizens above, with whom he ever supplicates the Lord for the devoted college. Hymn:

Great joy throughout the year the venerable feasts of St. Burchard bring back, in which, happy, he deserved to climb to the kingdom above.

Let us all resound his praises with devout mind, and with our whole soul giving thanks, singing to the Lord for such a gift.

He, dear to God, renowned for piety, coming to us from the shores of England, taught by words and deeds that the heavenly life is to be cultivated.

After the space of life given him was completed, dead in the flesh and joined to those above, he prays diligently for his servants and companies together.

Glory, majesty, honour and power, praise, salvation, strength, beauty, sure order, be together to God, the threefold unity, for all ages. Amen.

Antiphon at the Magnificat at First Vespers: From generation to generation the Lord hath shown mercy, who led Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, and from the farthest borders of the earth called St. Burchard, that in this our land he might be a pilgrim and a stranger, but in that heavenly fatherland a fellow-citizen of the saints and of the household of God, where, given to us by God as patron, he may continually intercede for this holy people and for all the faithful. At Second Vespers: Today, celebrating the feast of the most holy Burchard, let us together praise God, by whom he was upheld and shone forth with such great brightness; today let us give thanks with hymns for so great a patron received from heaven; today let us celebrate with praises him whom the angelic choir applauded as he ascended from mortals to eternal things. Collect at Lauds: Deus qui populo, as in the Mass; at both Vespers: O God, who hast granted us this present honourable day in the glorious festivity of blessed Burchard Thy confessor, grant us by his intercession not to be held by the waves of the present life. Through our Lord.

[47] Of this kind was the ancient cult of St. Burchard: and more recent, both the Mass and the Office afterwards underwent various changes. Adolf von Ehrenberg, bishop of Würzburg from the year 1623 until 1631, willed that the Office be recited from the Common of Confessors, and that only the antiphon at the Magnificat at both Vespers and the prayer Deus qui populo, etc. be retained. John Philip von Schönborn (he sat at Würzburg from the year 1642 until 1673) ordered the first lesson of the second nocturn to be taken from the Acts, the rest from a sermon of St. Maximus; he also prescribed the prayer Exaudi, etc. But Philip Francis willed that three lessons of the second nocturn drawn from the Acts be read; the rest from the Common. The feast of the translation is not celebrated everywhere with equal solemnity; but most solemnly in St. Burchard's, where it is celebrated with a double rite of the first class, a sermon to the people, a public supplication, indulgences proposed, and a huge concourse of citizens: the parishioners attend Mass and abstain from servile work. He is likewise venerated with singular honour in the cathedral church, though not so solemnly, in the church of the New Minster, and in the monastery of St. Stephen, in which he is venerated with the rite of a greater double. At Homburg also he is honoured with a special cult in the crypt in which he is believed to have rendered his happy soul to his Creator, now converted into a chapel, which, consecrated in the year 1721 on the 14th day of October by Peter, provost of Triefenstein, by the authority of John Philip Franz, bishop of Würzburg, is frequently visited by the faithful going there on pilgrimage for the sake of piety, from the time when a woman of Würzburg of the parish of St. Burchard recovered from a deadly illness by his intercession in the year 1721.

[48] sacred places dedicated to him, He has not a few churches dedicated to his name; and in the city of Würzburg itself Bishop Hugo willed that the church of St. Andrew be likewise sacred to its founder Burchard, as was said above. Willemodus, abbot of the place, afterwards restored it, and Bruno of Würzburg consecrated it anew to the name of St. Burchard in the year 1042; and finally, when it had already been one of canons from the year 1464, John Philip von Schönborn consecrated it in the year 1667 on the 7th day of July. Frederick Charles, bishop of Würzburg, likewise willed in the year 1743 that the church of the episcopal palace and its principal altar also be sacred to St. Burchard. Outside the city he has very many churches dedicated to him, partly parochial, partly, as they call them, filial. Parochial ones in Erlenbach, Gerichstetten, Jagsberg, Mellrichstadt, Messelhausen, Trappstadt; filial ones in Busselsheim, Erlebach, Stepbach; to say nothing of the various altars, images and statues erected in his honour, concerning which Gropp may be consulted in the German Life of St. Burchard, whence I have transferred here almost all that has been said about his cult in this and the preceding number. I add, from page 62, that St. Burchard was customarily invoked in the Greater Litanies which were formerly in use in the church of Würzburg. The same Gropp moreover teaches me, volume 4 of the Writers of Würzburg, page 70, that his sacred bones are indeed laid up in what was formerly the monastery of SS. Andrew and Burchard, but is now a noble college of canons; but it is not known in what place.

[49] and his memory among That the day of St. Burchard's death was the 2nd of February, sacred to the Purification of the Virgin Mother of God, Egilward related, no one, so far as I know, contradicting: the martyrologists. hence some of the martyrologists inscribed the holy bishop in their calendars at the 2nd day of February, others at the 14th of October: while Castellanus in his Universal Martyrology, Walasser in the German Martyrology, and Galesinius note him at both days. The translation of St. Burchard is likewise noted at the 21st day of November in the codex of Hagenau among the Usuardine Auctaria in Sollerius, but erroneously; since on the day sacred to the Virgin presented in the temple he neither died nor was ever translated. He is noted at the 2nd day of February in Mabillon in the Calendar of Saints of part 1 of the third Benedictine century, and in the English Martyrology: but at the 14th by the author of our manuscript Florarium, Wion, Greven, Molanus and others: finally in the Roman Martyrology, whose words are these: At Würzburg, of St. Burchard, first bishop of that city.

hymniza.*

LIFE OF ST. BURCHARD, BISHOP.

From the manuscript parchments of the monastery of the Order of Preachers at Eichstätt.

Burchard, bishop, confessor, at Würzburg in Germany. (S.)

BHL Number: 1483

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

[The author writes the Life of St. Burchard, so that those recalling his merits may be supported by his prayers.] The motion of earthly cares, if by divine help it is drawn to the regard of the divine mercy, how the eternal knowledge has justified its saints, the human mind also, * pressed by useless anxieties, is released, and moreover is not defrauded of the prize of reward. It is fitting, therefore, that we turn the course of our pen to the praises of blessed Burchard the bishop, so that, while we recall his merits, we may be supported by the benefits of his prayers. For there is no fear that, in the praises of blessed men faithfully set forth, the narration of pious devotion could exceed the measure of truth. Whatever, therefore, we rightly confess of all, we do not hesitate to utter also of each one. Since the brotherhood of the saints is so joined that Christ is held to be all in all, and the connection of the members is coupled to the head by that concord, so that the retribution of diverse merits is the one exultation of all. Wherefore leave of speech is given us, the guidance of Catholic narration being kept.

[2] The saint, leaving his native land, going first to Gaul, then to Germany, The venerable Burchard, noble by the race of the English, was made nobler by the pursuit of divine religion. He, vowing himself to God from his boyish years, hastened to the pursuit of good works as far as boyish age permitted. At length, leaving Britain under pretext of pilgrimage, having crossed the sea, he came to a certain part of Gaul. And there he lay hidden in the habit of a pilgrim for so long, until, having heard the fame of the eminent bishop Boniface, he was kindled with ardour to see the pontiff, spread abroad by the fame of his holiness. For he was then presiding over the city of the people of Mainz: a man illustrious in speech, pleasant in aspect, upright in morals. And when the venerable Burchard had come to him, ^a he was joyfully received by him.

[3] and kindly received by St. Boniface, having set out with him to Rome, And they say that the holy pontiff, at the first sight of the aforesaid man, filled with the prophetic spirit, uttered such a prophecy to the ministers attending him: Rejoice, brethren, behold, the Lord has sent us a man, a comrade, to whom the Lord's sheepfold gathered in the city of Würzburg by blessed Kilian ^b ought to be committed. Hearing these words, the venerable Burchard at first was terrified by the greatness of the burden; at last, mindful of the divine dispensation seen, he is said to have given such an answer: Although I seem unworthy of so great an office, yet I do not struggle against the burden to be imposed on me by the divine dispensation. For He who mercifully imposes a burden will, I believe, mercifully lighten it. From that time the most holy bishop Boniface searched with skilful inquiry by what means he could bring about what he knew had been revealed to him by divine grace. At length, impelled by divine help, with the consent of Pippin the illustrious king, who then dispensed the government of Francia, he went to Rome, the aforesaid Burchard as companion. ^c And there was then presiding over the Roman Church Zachary, the supreme pontiff, ^d most fit for the Lord's sheepfold, not unbefitting the mitre of the supreme pontificate. He was wont to gather with the ample bosom of charity the men coming to Rome from the parts of Germany, wishing to lead the peoples of the new planting in the faith of Christ to seek out the place where the Shepherd of the churches and the Teacher of the gentiles were held in their human bodies. And when the coming of the archbishop of Mainz had become known to him, he began to consider beforehand whether he could work together * with so great a man anything worthy of God. For he had long since heard the fame of his holiness spread far and wide. But when it had come to this, that after the embraces given to each other they enjoyed mutual conversations, the Roman pontiff began to inquire how the still rude faith of the Germans might be supported by the bulwark of religion, whether the inextinguishable lamp of the divine regard of new learning might shine for the peoples. When the blessed bishop Boniface had rendered a true opinion on all things about which he had been asked, he confessed at the end that this would chiefly be the business of his coming, that the town of Würzburg, neighbouring his diocese, might be consecrated with the episcopal office. Then the Roman pontiff first began to ask what person should be appointed to this office, saying that the office did not befit the unlearned, according to the precept of the Apostle. Next, whether the estates would suffice for the bishopric, by which the necessity of the poor and the want of the clergy could be sustained; asserting that the bishop is the steward of God's household.

[4] he is consecrated bishop by Zachary: Blessed Boniface, therefore, endowed with the munificence of charity, delegated to the bishopric of Würzburg a part of the estates of his own bishopric approved by the Roman pontiff, so that the future bishop there, as he would be a sharer of the divine labour, so also might become a partaker of temporal sustenance, according to that saying of the Apostle: Bear ye one another's burdens, and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ. ^e These things being duly done, the person who should be appointed as fit for the office is again inquired after by the Roman pontiff. But the venerable bishop Boniface, leading Burchard into the midst, began to follow him with worthy praises, saying that he had come in youthful age from the western parts, ^f and, living with him up to perfect age, he had found nothing in him that might seem contrary to the pontifical office, and therefore he believed him worthy of the pontifical mitre. At this the supreme bishop said with a cheerful face: Let us give thanks to God, brother, because from the rising of the sun to the going down the name of the Lord is praised. You say that he has come from the setting, through whom divine piety will minister the rising of the true sun to the peoples unlearned in the faith. Let us accomplish what we believe has been disposed by divine ordinance. And so Burchard having been consecrated bishop, and privileges received from the Roman See, both bishops hasten to seek again their own sees; whom the Roman pastor follows with such wishes: Go, he says, O dearest brethren, fellow-workers of the divine seed; may the fruit of your labour grow; and may the enemy not be able, while you are sluggish, to sow in the Lord's field that which at harvest-time must be given to burning; and may the help of the divine protection follow you, by which the doorkeeper of the heavenly court was defended, lest he be sifted by Satan like wheat. These things said, they took to the road, returning to their own sees. Which being accomplished, in divine praises and spiritual songs both bishops at length reached the town of Würzburg. And a copious multitude of men dwelling there and running to meet them from the neighbouring places cried out with suppliant voices, saying: Come,

fathers, come, servants of God most high, come, deliverers of our souls; increase the seeds of the divine word, once shown to us by blessed Kilian, so that the soil of our minds, cultivated by the ploughshare of your words, may be able to bear worthy fruits of increase. Hearing these words, both bishops are recorded to have shed tears for joy. At length the eminent archbishop Boniface said: Happy wilt thou be, Würzburg, and not undistinguished among the cities of Germany; and although in these times thou art held the last of certain cities, yet, adorned with the bodies of martyrs, thou art not held inferior. In the number of the Trinity thou art upheld by three martyrs; ^g to complete the tetrad, the probity of Burchard the bishop has been added.

[5] he watches diligently over his flock, raises up the relics of St. Kilian, While these things were being done, they came to the place of prayer, and, prayers having been poured forth and all things that pertained to the present business duly accomplished, St. Boniface returned to his own. But the venerable bishop Burchard began to search out with diligent meditation how, by ruling well the sheep entrusted to him, he might merit the Lord's Well done at the last examination of the supreme Judge. For he was gentle in speech, bright of countenance, given to vigils and prayers and alms as far as his means allowed, of age verging towards old age, so that in all things he seemed fit for the pontifical office. And so it came about that he was loved by almost all; for he could not but be loved whom the grace of heavenly benefit filled. And a prerogative supported him, so that he was worthily loved by all. Thereafter he began to meditate that the bodies of the blessed martyrs Kilian and his companions should be raised from the place in which they had been rashly placed by the unbelievers. For he knew for certain that those had not been carefully laid up whom he had heard to have been secretly slain. Having gathered, then, clergy and people, he proclaimed a fast, so that they might be found worthy, by whom the holy martyrs would permit their bodies to be moved. And on the day appointed for the elevation of the martyrs, ^h a very great multitude of country people flowed together to Würzburg, some from zeal for religion; others had come allured by the report of miracles, others from desire of recovering health. Then the venerable pontiff Burchard approached the place of burial, and, taking a hoe, was the first to begin digging, the ministers whom he had chosen for this work helping him. And after the earth was carried out, the bodies of the martyrs were found in a not deep trench, so fragrant that the nostrils of all standing around were filled with the sweetness of so great an odour. The bodies then being raised up, a huge concourse of peoples took place, and a packed throng of the multitude. For that popular assembly laboured, if anyone could touch the bier, or fall down in its passage; others, with hands raised, to render thanks to God; and the voice of all was one: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.

[6] and rests in a holy end. And the Lord wrought such signal miracles through His saints that, if any were perhaps present who wavered in faith, seeing so many signs they were strengthened with solid firmness of belief. Miracles therefore accompanying, they came with hymns to the place where the bodies of the saints were to be laid up; which, carefully laid up, are frequented to the present day with hymns and prayers. But the venerable priest Burchard, in the place where the bodies of the holy martyrs had been held in the earth, devoted himself with unfailing zeal to vigils, prayers and frequent Masses, fearing lest the fraud of the ancient thief should be able, through sloth, to remove itself from the treasures proved by divine fire; or lest, while they themselves kept watch less diligently, they should despise a sluggish guardian, and one not entirely diligent himself. The holy man, therefore, being certain of the prize of eternal reward, fortified himself on every side with skilful caution, so that, when the Lord who had set him over His household knocked, he might at once open the door, and, the lamps being lit, there might be no delay on his part to prevent his being received to the eternal banquet with the wise virgins. Anxious, then, in this expectation, in the divine work he could neither be overcome by the cunning of the ancient serpent nor slowed by the weight of old age; in a worn-out * body he bore a manly spirit. At length the time had come at which the holy soul was to be loosed from the mass of the body; and the holy man, perceiving through the sickness of the body that the dissolution of the flesh was threatening near at hand, having called the faithful who could be present at the time, took care to minister the food of the divine word even at the last end of the present life, admonishing them to keep to the way of truth, and to observe inviolably charity, in which the sum of the virtues consists. After this, having uttered the blessing of his last office, fortified with the viaticum of the Body and Blood of Christ, having lost the mass of the earthly body he departed to heaven, ⁱ where, having received the singular robe of happiness, he awaits the last day of the resurrection, on which, clothed with a double ornament, he may rejoice that nothing is lacking to him, through Him who lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

a. About the year 725.

* These words are superfluous.

Less correctly; in Mabillon, vero*.

Read effoeto corpore* in a worn-out body.

LIFE OF ST. BURCHARD BY EGILWARD

From an ancient manuscript of the monastery of St. Stephen at Würzburg.

Burchard, bishop, confessor, at Würzburg in Germany. (S.)

BHL Number: 1484

BY EGILWARD

PROLOGUE.

BOOK I.

The author professes himself unequal to the burden imposed, To P., the abbot worthily to be venerated of a venerable congregation, according to his name a pilgrim passing through ^a the world, but otherwise a fellow-citizen of the saints and of the household of God, and to his fellow-soldiers, namely those keeping watch within the wall of St. Burchard, the sinner E., ^b not worthy even of the name: ^c if the service of so small a person avails anything in divine and fraternal charity by the judgement of the mother of the virtues, with which indeed the fathers who went before us have sufficiently made us heirs, perhaps not without cause you impose a heavy burden on me, on me, I say, not so much another's as your own little ass of your own right, which you have most frequently fed and given drink, but most rarely or never loaded; for after I deserved to be made your member by your condescension alone, ^d from then, as far as was in me, I strove, as was fitting, either to suffer with you in all things or to be glorified with you, according to the words of the Apostle. Whence, not presuming to kick any further against the goad of a charity so ingrained, I do not withdraw the back of obedience from the pack of your commission, although it far exceeds my strength, although I am not ignorant that many brilliant intellects have hitherto flourished among us, and still flourish, which would more than sufficiently prevail to extol with fitting praises the merits of our kindly patron, nay, of the first hierarch of the metropolis of all Eastern Francia, Burchard.

[2] yet that he undertakes it out of obedience. The Holy Spirit, then, breathing upon us, who breathes where He will, let there conspire in this matter through unanimity common things, though diverse or equivalent according to the diversity of merits, namely the piety of the same bishop, now a dweller in heaven, by favouring, your most fervent charity by helping with prayers, and my obedience also, would it were less presumptuous, by leading the decree. ^e Yet to thy judgement, O P., charioteer of the chariot of Israel, let it be most especially granted what is to be received or rejected from the present little work: and indeed let the whole eye of this intention direct itself chiefly to this, that in all these things God alone may be honoured, who alone is wonderful in His saints; alone is not undeservedly glorified most of all in their merits. Let the present little work, moreover, be between our two congregations, as for those present a proof of fraternal love, so also for posterity on both sides a monument or testament of perpetual fellowship, so that, while here a common devotion proves itself to burn for one and the same patron, in the land of the living sower and reaper together may rejoice perpetually. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

SECOND PROLOGUE.

[England, converted to the faith of Christ, sent very many heralds of the faith to foreign peoples,] By the grace of the Saviour of the world, who calls those whom He predestines, and justifies those whom He calls, by the Word of His Gospel, which He had promised was to be preached in the whole world, He at length, from the number of islands ^a which through the error of unbelief had long been far from salvation, through the industry of His faithful steward Gregory, ^b made even England, a very fruitful land, made capable of the Lord's seed through the increase of the whole Christian religion, near to Himself by His teachers, the Holy Spirit cooperating. We have no need to unfold much thence, inasmuch as we are not ignorant that it is set forth most abundantly in the Deeds of the English. Yet it is not to be idly passed over, nay rather, for the love of Christ, to be contemplated with the whole sharpness of the heart, how from the rising of the sun to its setting the lightning-flash of the Gospel radiance, appearing, so illuminated the western islands that by the splendours of its rays it put to flight even the darknesses of our parts by making known the sun of justice; while Scotia, once brutish, now most wise in Christ, destined to us our first light, Kilian, ^c to the Burgundians Columban, ^d to the Alemanni Gall: ^e but England destined to the whole of Germany the great Boniface, and to Eastern Francia its first and sufficiently suitable pastor, and, as is most truly believed, a mirror very necessary to a church still too uncultivated, Burchard. ^f To which excellent leaders of the spiritual warfare a strong army in God, following its own master, adhered to each; and since there is no leisure to express their several ^g names, let it please rather to attend ^h to their examples than to their names. These things then being woven in as the warp of the web, ⁱ Christ helping, the matter now requires that the woof be consequently tied in and knotted, to renew, namely, the memory of the first man, ^k the monk, the bishop Burchard, named beforehand and to be named more often.

CHAPTER I.

The youth of St. Burchard, his approach to St. Boniface, the Roman journey, and his institution as bishop of Würzburg.

CHAP. I.

and to Eastern Francia indeed St. Burchard As the various writings of various fathers testify, when the new church of the English, the sign of Gregory's planting, had sprouted, budded, grown and flowered, always, as is said of the same teacher, his venerable merit received increase there; the faith of the same nation indeed bearing fruit through many successions of times with devotion of all religion and fertility of good works. Meanwhile there was flourishing in the same island or fatherland, under a most Christian king, ^l a certain fragrant little bed of the good odour of Christ, the noble kindred of the most noble Burchard, which, illustrious both in wealth and in lineage, was noted by all as endowed with the marks of divine fear, ^m and showed itself most famous, especially by this, not only to its fellow-villagers and fellow-tribesmen, but to the whole kingdom, that in good deeds it suffered itself to be second to no generation of that land. For which reason, not unfittingly, that Davidic eulogy was divinely fulfilled there: His seed shall be mighty upon earth; the generation of the righteous shall be blessed. ⁿ For the divine blessing enriched them with a twin offspring, exceedingly excellent, which surpassed the illustrious merits of father and mother together, nay, of that whole generation, namely Burchard and Suidunus, ^o both afterwards to be bishops of a see destined or provided for them from heaven. O how blessed the fruit of that mother's womb, which sufficiently ministered the medicine of eternal salvation to two separate nations, to England through her native Suidunus, to Eastern Francia nonetheless through the newcomer Burchard!

[5] the brother of St. Swithun: Furthermore, before we build the premeditated structure upon the narrative of the conversation of the same patron of ours, for which we have laid the foundations, let us not pass over entirely in silence [p] the few things which we have learned by report of his brother, an equally most holy man and bishop. Brothers born in England who once lived with us, Godwin and Adalmar, and very many others coming hither from there, related to us that the Life of blessed Suidunus, full of miracles, is found written in the churches of that land round about, which shines with so many and such great miracles of virtues and teaching that it is itself not powerless to commend the testimony of his brother's holiness. It is read among us, they said, that the same servant of God from his earliest age was excellently imbued with all the gifts of God together with the disciplines of letters, and moreover was chiefly clothed in white with all the purities of celibate life; and although he suffered himself to be seen void of no virtue, he was yet most of all noted as remarkable for bowels of mercy. For to all suffering necessity he became at once a neighbour as far as he could. But not to dwell on many things, where we promised few, and since we hasten rather to other things according to our purpose: how the same elect of God, perfect both in practical and in theoretical conversation, was canonically promoted through all the ecclesiastical grades to the honour of the episcopate in the city which is called Wirziburg; [q] how he illustrated the same by teachings and examples; and how, [r] translated from the straits of this world, having obtained the reward of his stewardship as a faithful and wise steward, he entered into the joy of his Lord; all these things, I say, he who shall desire to know them fully will be able to search out at that church which he ruled. Some also relate that the same brothers were not only fellow-countrymen of the great Archbishop Boniface, but also kinsmen in the flesh. [s]

CHAP. II.

[6] The venerable Burchard, therefore, by no means suffered so illustrious, so lofty a genealogy of his lineage to be obscured by the clouds of his own morals; of whom he lay hidden for some time in Gaul in the habit of a pilgrim, but rather, beginning already from the very years of his earliest age to shine with the light of probity, he seemed by every kind of effort to picture what the mercy of God, going before him, was striving to work in him in the future. [t] For when he had been handed over by his religious parents, as is easily believed, to be imbued with letters, scarcely anyone, or never, found him entangled in boyish levities; but either applying himself to liberal studies, or wearing the thresholds of the churches, or dwelling in whatever other signs of a good disposition. Mercy also grew in him with the growth of the body, as blessed Job testifies of himself, [u] and, so to speak, in the elegant material of the flesh a composition of virtues was gradually formed. Why say more? Thus by fasts and alms, vigils and prayers, he repressed spiritual wickednesses no less than the allurements of the flesh, until, having been long since planted by the Holy Spirit, such honesty of morals grew up in him that now that temple of God, perfect and adorned on every side, permitted nothing perishable to be shut up in itself. Hence the deliberation which, Christ inspiring, he had conceived, he strengthened by the counsel of spiritual men; and, his face manfully set firm against the blandishments of the flattering world, he renounced riches and pleasures as well as himself [x] and his own wills, and, naked, carried daily the naked cross after Christ. But considering, in this very perfection, certain stumbling-blocks of temptations set against him, that is, the riches of an opulent fatherland, the affinity of illustrious kindred, the affections of friends, the nearness of despised estates, and the other clouds smoking from the world and clouding the edge of true contemplation, he implored with continual prayers that it might be revealed or inspired to him what the first Arbiter had disposed should chiefly become of him; and at length, strengthened by the spirit of counsel and fortitude, he resolved in every way on the refuge of perpetual pilgrimage. Finally, having left his native soil for the land of the living, lest at some time the perils of hell should find him, he crossed the perilous waves of the washing salt sea, and, reaching the border of Gallia Comata, [y] in a certain rather humble place, truly not having here a lasting city, but seeking one to come, he lay hidden for some time in the habit of a pilgrim.

CHAP. III.

[7] [but by St. Boniface, while he was eminently promoting the Christian cause in Germany,] There was shining in these times a star differing in truly heavenly brightness from the many stars which were then radiating, Winfrid, nonetheless a native of England, who long since, having renounced fatherland, parents, nay all transitory things for Christ, and therefore anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit above his fellows, was scattering through the vast deserts of the kingdoms of Germany the seeds of the word of God handed to him by the Apostolic See, already toiling exceedingly at the Gospel husbandry. For how this elect of the Lord, and first among his own most praiseworthy in all things, being praised by the letters of the English at the Roman Church, was bound to the fellowship of the same mother of all churches, so much so that from his good deeds, his name being changed by Pope Gregory, he was called Boniface, consecrated bishop and destined as apostolic legate to the parts of Germany, acquired very many people for Christ, obtained the goodwill of kings and princes, took up the metropolitan see of noble Mainz, and afterwards exalted it with the pallium of the archiepiscopate, gathered general councils in the churches on this side of the Alps, and corrected there many things to be corrected, and moreover gained for his Lord, in the long time of his stewardship, an altogether manifold profit from the talents received; these, I say, and many other things worthy of God and necessary to be known, anyone will be able to search out diligently in the very many writings which [z] are found concerning him. in Germany,

[8] There worked together, indeed, in all these things with this his faithful and sufficiently wise steward that merciful Father of the family and Lord, in whose hand the salvation of all nations stands, in whose predestination of having mercy on them its own time is disposed for each of them, of whom we read a most true prophecy, nay, we see no longer a prophecy but evident history: He shall come down like rain upon the fleece, and as showers falling gently upon the earth, etc., as far as And all kings of the earth shall adore him. [aa] How would the sowers of the divine word, although tirelessly persisting for a long time with the barren hearts of the nations, now sowing, now planting, now watering, extort any increase by themselves, unless the showers of that rain which once came down upon the virginal fleece made such lands fruitful by bedewing them from heaven? For, as Gregory testifies, unless there is One within who teaches, the word of the teacher labours in vain outwardly: and on the contrary, there is no delay in learning where the Holy Spirit is present as teacher: besides, the abundance of the promised rising of justice and peace could never be established except through Him, by His mediation, who alone is justice and peace to every believer. By this art also the mercy of Christ always goes before His messengers: thus from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth, the eternal Father established and extended dominion for His same truly peaceful Son, and confirmed it from eternity to eternity. These things having been inserted by way of digression, though necessarily, let us draw back our pen [bb] again to describing the conversation of blessed Burchard, from whom we have digressed a little.

CHAP. IV.

[9] The athlete of Christ, Burchard, then, having passed through the apprenticeship of flowering youth already bravely against the powers of the air and against the rulers of the world of this darkness, already a priest, and against spiritual wickednesses, by the mortification of the members which are upon the earth, did by no means, after the manner of certain self-pleasers, glory in himself in such progress, but in the Lord, saying with the Apostle: By the grace of God I am what I am; and likewise: not I, but the grace of God with me; [cc] and moreover, having been canonically promoted through the ecclesiastical grades, he disposed other ascents also in his heart. He began to meditate with continual revolving of mind how he might ever be advanced from virtue to virtue, from good things to better. Besides, considering that he had not without cause received the knowledge of the liberal arts, the composure of morals, eloquence of speech, elegance of body and the other gifts of the Holy Spirit, he did not cease at all hours anxiously to consider how he might best double the talent entrusted to him, knowing that it was said by the Lord: To whom more is committed, of him more is required. [dd]

[10] summoned Meanwhile there came to him the fame, which had already wandered through all parts of Europe, of that archimandrite Boniface of whom we lately made mention; and at once, filled with the good odour of Christ, and trusting that with the holy one one may be holy and with the elect elect, he did not cease to thirst for the presence of so great a man, the hearing of so great a teacher, and to pant ardently for the conversation of so great holiness and dignity. But it happened, by the providence of the divine wisdom, which disposes all things sweetly, that while the same man Boniface, apostolic in all things, was toiling with all his strength in the Lord's field, and the crop of the word of God was already growing into a great harvest, the venerable hero, taking care lest the fewness of the labourers should impede the fervent work, summoned very many fellow-workers from his native land, whom he knew to be suitable, by envoys and letters, to cultivate the Lord's fallow ground which he had begun to break. Among whom the renowned priest Burchard, most celebrated in every testimony of religion, called to the marriage of the Lamb, glowed especially, clothed in the twice-dyed scarlet of twofold charity. [ee] In this manner the inner Arbiter, ever proving hearts, the desire

of His poor He heard: thus He fulfilled the will of those who fear Him, when He Himself, charity mediating, brought about the bodily presence which each priest spiritually was striving after in the other, for His perpetual service and the salvation of many peoples, through deputed messengers.

CHAP. V.

[11] Without delay: while the grace of the Holy Spirit was working such things outwardly, it did not disdain to make known its presence through its accustomed gifts in the first meeting of such great men: and gladly received, not without a prophecy of his future episcopate, for immediately after the most humble greeting and holy kisses, the supreme pontiff of Christ, Boniface, filled with the spirit of prophecy, broke out into oracles of this kind: Let us rejoice, brethren, he said, in the Lord, who deigns to stretch out the hand of His kindness to our labour, visiting us with fraternal consolation, and ever providing new teachers for the unlearned sons of the Church from the islands and from the ends of the earth. Let us give huge thanks to His providence, who has now enlarged our fellowship with the comradeship of so great a man. To him without doubt is owed the Lord's sheepfold to be guarded, gathered by the insistence of blessed Kilian and his companions, instructed by teachings and examples, and consecrated by martyrdom. But the servant of Christ, Burchard, turning back the eye of humility upon himself, although he then expected to hear nothing less, inasmuch as he had come in every way to be subject, not to preside, yet considering that humility without obedience is barren or nothing, at length, after a silence conceived from astonishment, he is said to have broken out into an answer of this kind: I believe, venerable father, I believe that what your authority has set forth you have by no means uttered idly: I know too that, if you knew me within, you would by no means have uttered it. I indeed, even if I truly profess that I am not fit for that which you speak, nevertheless do not struggle against the burden, whatever is imposed on me through your holiness. For if God through you mercifully imposes a burden on me, I trust that He will mercifully lighten it. For I am here ready to obey your command in all things, and because I do this for the name of the Saviour, I do not doubt that through it I shall be saved with His grace.

CHAP. VI.

[12] From this time, joined to the most noble college of holy men under the mastership of the supreme bishop Boniface, Burchard, a priest worthy of God, began most carefully to season the solid holiness of his conversation from the examples of each, as with certain spices, and in comparison with them to despise himself and his whole he applies himself to greater perfection; past life; and thence it came about that, for the honesty of his morals and his life most praiseworthy in all things, he was in a short time an object of love and honour to all. On the other hand, that blessed man, not commending himself, but glorying moderately in the Lord with ingrained humility for the testimony of a good conscience, was often wont to ruminate on that sentence of the Psalmist: Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Thy name give glory. [ff] Already then he professed that he had entered a new, nay the first, apprenticeship of Christ, namely within the troop of so many and such robust soldiers of Christ, to whose footsteps also he proposed to cleave, by whose examples he trusted that he could without doubt creep higher up the mountain of the Lord, if only, forgetting the things that were behind, he would stretch forth perseveringly to those that are before, until [gg] at length, appearing in the sight of the Lord in justice, he should be satisfied with the glory made manifest to His elect alone. There were there under the mastership of the aforesaid apostolic teacher Boniface many men already made perfect, namely Lull, afterwards his successor in the episcopate, the brothers Willibald and Wunibald, Wigbert, Esola, Eoban and Adalharius and Walther, and the rest of his fellow-workers in the word of God, whose names the book of his deeds contains, [hh] living under the monastic profession, [ii] yet serving equally the ecclesiastical ministries and preaching; with whose counsel, as spiritual men in all things, he frequently took care to treat how he might set upon the candlestick of the Church that same lamp, so sufficiently kindled with the fire of the divine Spirit, and how he might bring to fitting effect what had been revealed to him by heavenly grace concerning the purchased people of the holy martyr Kilian. At length, strengthened by the oracles of so many concordant temples of the Holy Spirit, he went as a suppliant to Pippin, who was called mayor of the palace and then administered the kingdom of the Franks under Hilderic, king in name alone, and revealed to him the secrets of his heart on the present head; who graciously, after his manner, assented to the pious wishes; and not only this, but also sent his own embassy and that of the royal dignity, or letters, to the pontiff of the Apostolic See through the same bishop. For, taking with him the aforesaid priest Burchard, the kindly bishop crossed the snowy ridges of the Alps not without many dangers: and at length, governed by divine providence, alone [kk] in the number of his companions and his goods, he is presented to the walls of Romulus. [ll]

CHAP. VII.

[13] There presided in these times over the Roman Church Pope Zachary, then having set out to Rome with St. Boniface by Pippin's command supreme shepherd to the Lord's sheepfold, most fit both in words and in examples, not unbefitting the apostolic pontificate from the Apostle Peter. He was wont to gather with the ample bosom of charity the men coming to Rome from the parts of Germany, striving in every way to draw the peoples of the new planting in the faith of Christ to seek out the place which, as of old it had been the head of the world by secular power, so in the time of Gospel grace, by the empire of Christ received, and by the martyrdom and burial of the Prince of the Apostles and of the Teacher of the gentiles, had advanced to the primacy of the universal Church. And when the coming of the archbishop of Mainz had become known to the same apostolic father, he began to consider beforehand whether he could work together with so great a man anything worthy of God. For he had long since heard the fame of his holiness spread far and wide. But when it had come to this, that after the embraces given to each other they enjoyed great [mm] conversations, the Roman pontiff began to inquire by what bulwark of religion the still rude faith of the Germans was supported: whether, the peoples making progress in the discipleship of new learning, the lamp of the divine regard ever shone forth in the increase of the faithful people.

[14] Hence the blessed bishop Boniface, when he had rendered a true and distinct account of these and of all things about which he had been asked, by Pope Zachary, confessed at the end that this had chiefly been the business of his coming, that the town of Würzburg, contiguous to his diocese, might obtain an episcopal see by the bulwark * of apostolic authority. The venerable hero also related the cause of this same religious intention in the hearing both of the lord Apostolic and of the universal synod which perhaps had then been gathered, [nn] namely that a certain man of most holy conversation, a Scot by birth, named Kilian, once sent by the Apostolic See as a preacher to the Eastern Franks, and consummated with his companions by martyrdom at the aforesaid city, was now becoming renowned with many miracles at his tomb, and on account of this very sign of divine favour it pleased the king of the Franks and all his nobles that an episcopal see should be made there for the increase of the Church and the salvation of so noble a province. All praised the desire of the Christian king; they magnified, besides, the goodwill of the princes, the industry of the bishop, the progress of the growing Church. Then the Roman pontiff first began diligently to inquire what person could be appointed to this office, saying that a neophyte did not at all befit peoples unlearned in the faith, according to the precepts of the Teacher of the gentiles. Next, whether there would suffice for this, from the contributions or offerings of the faithful, estates for the bishopric by which the necessity of the poor and the want of the clergy might be sustained; asserting that the bishop, as steward of the household of Christ, would provide for those subject to him not only spiritual but also bodily food.

[15] Blessed Boniface, therefore, endowed with the munificence of charity, Boniface especially commending him, delegated to the bishopric of Würzburg a part of the estates of his own bishopric approved by the Roman pontiff, so that the future bishop there, as he would be a sharer of the Lord's labour, so also might become a partaker of temporal sustenance, according to that saying of the Apostle: Bear ye one another's burdens, and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ. [oo] These things being duly done, the person who should be appointed as fit for this office is again inquired after by the Roman pontiff. Then the bishop of Mainz, a man of admirable prudence, leading into the midst the priest Burchard, worthy of all honour, began to follow him with praises and to add his own approved testimony to his probity, asserting that he had come from the western parts some years before into his and his companions' fellowship, and that since then he had never found anything in him that could be believed unworthy of the pontifical dignity. At this the glorious pope, now become more cheerful in heart and face, said: Let us give thanks, brethren, to the providence of our Saviour, because, as is truly said, from the rising of the sun to its going down the name of the Lord is praised. You testify that he has come from the setting, through whom divine piety will minister the rising of the true sun to unlearned peoples. Let us therefore pursue eagerly through our office what we believe has been disposed by divine ordinance. But first let us knock with common devotion at the clemency of Christ, that He may deign to stretch out His right hand to our ministry.

CHAP. VIII.

[16] After this he found the hearts and mouths of all in the counsel of the cardinals and of the whole Roman council favourably agreeing with him, and, all Rome approving, he is consecrated, that the city of Würzburg should be distinguished with a pontifical see of Eastern Francia, and also that Burchard, a priest of so excellent testimony, should be ordained and consecrated first bishop there by the supreme priest himself; which he himself at once hastened to fulfil with all devotion and spiritual joy, the whole Roman Church cooperating; and he took care to confirm what was duly done, by apostolic authority, and also by ratified secular as well as ecclesiastical stipulations, canonically and by the law of nations, in every way. For when St. Zachary had anointed the elect Burchard with the chrism of Christ with his own hands, and had more than sufficiently commended him, the anointed of the Lord, to Christ by mystical prayers [pp] after the ecclesiastical manner, and consecrated him, he armed him sufficiently with privileges of Roman authority against the wickednesses of the reprobate, instructed him with fatherly admonitions how he should cultivate the new vineyard of Christ, diligently animated him with the consolation of the Holy Spirit how he should also steer the little boat, still small and unpractised, amid the immense waves of the world, and at the last sent him back to the patronage of Prince Pippin and of all the faithful of Christ with letters of commendation, impressed indeed with his seal after the manner of his predecessors; and, what excels all these, he richly endowed him with relics of the saints for the building up and protection of the new church.

[17] and both bishops are dismissed amid auspicious prayers. Thereupon, shortly, both bishops ask leave of the Master to return home, and, prostrate at his feet, they are fortified with the kindly solace of the apostolic blessing against all the hazards of the impending journey, as well as all the perils of both the outer and inner man in the sea of this world. Thus, being fully assured of answers about all things for which they had come, they set out on the road to return to their own sees with the greatest joy. Whom the Roman pontiff, not without tears of fatherly piety, follows with words and wishes of this kind: Go, he says, now in the peace of Christ, dearest brethren, fellow-workers of the Lord's field, sowers of the divine word; may the fruit of your labour grow and be multiplied, nourished by the dew or rain of the Holy Spirit. Beware, I pray, lest, which God forbid, while you are sluggish or sleeping, the enemy oversow cockle in the field of the supreme Father of the family: attend continually to the time of harvest, when the sheaves of your labours may rather be laid up in the Lord's barns than bundles of cockle be given to the burnings. May the help of the Gospel protection ever accompany you, by which you may be able to advance [qq]

at all times in the priestly ministry you have undertaken. May the Doorkeeper of the heavenly court, from whose most sacred chair you have received the office of pastoral care, urgently and daily support your solicitude; and may your life be protected by the prayers of him who in the time of temptation was defended by the Saviour's protection, lest he be sifted by Satan like wheat.

CHAP. IX.

[18] Then, the difficulty of the Alps having been crossed through the protection of Christ's grace without the hindrance of any injury, [When they returned to Franconia, people go to meet them from all sides, and Burchard] and with praises of God and spiritual songs, having traversed the long spaces of the province of Bavaria or of Alemannia, they reach the welcome borders of Eastern Francia, and come to the town of Würzburg, situated almost in its middle: and a huge multitude of men, both of those dwelling there and from the neighbouring places, ran to meet them. For fame, going before, had gathered them hither; who all offered hearts thirsting for the fountain of life to the priests of Christ, and with suppliant cries indeed filled the very air, so to speak, up to the stars: Welcome, they said, fathers blessed by the Lord; come, servants of God most high; come, deliverers of our souls; increase the seeds of the divine word, once shown to us by blessed Kilian, so that the soil of our minds, cultivated by the ploughshare of your words, may be able to bring forth worthy fruits of faith and good works. Hearing these words, both bishops shed tears for joy, and, sealing the flock of Christ with their blessings, commended such devout sheep to the same Shepherd of shepherds with most heartfelt prayers. Meanwhile the eminent archbishop Boniface, in the exultation of the Holy Spirit, now become more cheerful, uttered in the ears of all a word of blessing and prophecy of this kind: Happy wilt thou be henceforth, Würzburg, and not undistinguished among the cities of Germany; and although in times past thou wast held the last of certain cities, yet, adorned with the bodies of martyrs, thou shalt no longer be held inferior. In the number of the Trinity thou art upheld by three martyrs; [rr] to complete the tetrad, behold, the probity of Burchard the bishop has now been added.

[19] Boniface, by an address Meanwhile they came to the place of prayer: there, prayers having been poured forth, the same Boniface, the Roman legate, taking the new bishop by the hand, presented him to the sight of all the people standing round: Behold, he said, brethren, I present to you a bishop acquired for us by our solicitude, consecrated and directed by the Roman and Apostolic See, necessary to our new faith; I show you a father commended to me by my master Zachary: to him I bear in the sight and hearing of all of you a testimony not flattering or feigned, but true and proved by experience; the very same, namely, which it is established that I lately bore both before Prince Pippin and before the universal Master of priests, in the Roman council [ss] in the midst of our brethren, namely that by merits, knowledge, condition and age, and by every manner of conversation, he stands worthy and fit for the pontifical office, as is just, and that I judge the same of this fellow-labourer of mine, to whom I may securely impart the burden of my labour. But I wish none of you, little sons, to be ignorant of the cause of this office which today, in the name of Christ and by the joining of His bride, we are initiating.

[20] delivered to the people, Kilian, then, the founder of your faith, sent to you by the apostolic pastorate, proved by the testimony of martyrdom in this very place what he taught by words. Behold, the confession of the present tomb speaks this very thing, where, at the bodies of him and his companions, the confirmation of your belief is divinely exercised day and night by healings and miracles. This the grace of Christ willed first to make known to me through a certain brother of ours, namely the priest Attolongus, [tt] who received back here beside the clods of the martyrs, by their merits, the light of his eyes taken from him by the judgement of God. Then so great a holiness, manifested by numerous signs in our diocese, was seen, both by me and by all our brethren round about, not to be neglected. Now truly we constitute and present to you today as your own bishop this holy man, worthy of all honour, elected by the consent of the princes, consecrated by apostolic confirmation, in our stead and by the Roman legation which we discharge; so that from this day and thereafter all the ecclesiastical sacraments, that is, chrism, consecrations and ordinations, penances or indulgences, may be canonically administered by this your father, and by those subject to him or his successors; and that these may no longer, as before, be sought at Mainz or anywhere else by you or your posterity. Honour him in the stead of Christ, in whom you have believed: listen diligently to him handing on to you the precepts of Christ and sent from heaven: obey him also in all things and through all things, as one who will render account for you on the day of judgement. Tithes and offerings, synodal assemblies, festivals and fasts, or any other observances of Christianity imposed on you through him, pay according to the decrees of the canons, as true Christians and co-heirs of Christ: and for all these things hope most certainly for an eternal reward in that eternal life from the just Judge, the same the pious Rewarder.

CHAP. X.

[21] After he had finished speaking these and many things like them, he institutes him bishop of Würzburg in the year 751. at once the voice of all, as if one voice, agreed unanimously in the election and reception of so great a pontiff. Then the kindly elder ordered the apostolic letters confirming the institution of the bishopric of Würzburg, and abundantly offering consolation to the people present and also to those who would believe in Christ there in the future until the end of the world, to be read publicly; and so he enthroned the bishop chosen both by God and by men after the ecclesiastical manner, amid the infinite eagerness and rejoicing of all who were present. Then, dismissing the people to their own homes, he himself, with the magnates, staying there for some days, venerably arranged all things which the right of the bishopric required according to the custom of the country; that is, he marked out the boundary of the new diocese on every side, as seemed fitting, divided parishes to be governed by priests among the several peoples, and, if the matter demanded anything besides these, established it together with the new bishop. At length, all things which pertained to the present business at home and abroad having been arranged, as far as he could, not sluggishly, he bade farewell to his like-minded friend and fellow-bishop Burchard, and, leaving him in his own see, after mutual tears of both he returned to his own, to present himself at the metropolis of Mainz. This institution of the new pontificate was carried out at the city of Würzburg in the order described, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 751; and in the 66th year [uu] after the passion of the holy martyrs Kilian and his companions, which took place in the year of the Incarnation 685, [xx] for the increase of the churches of Germany, and above all for the salvation of the whole of Eastern Francia, by the authority, namely, of Pope Zachary, with the consent also of Pippin the Younger, prince of Francia, Boniface, bishop of Mainz, mediating, and blessed Burchard being consecrated first pontiff to the same see, to the honour of God the unbegotten Father most high, and of His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and of the Holy Spirit the Paraclete, to whom is ever praise and glory in the one Trinity and threefold Unity before all things and for all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

n. Psalm III, verse 2.

p. Surius: what we have found out about his brother, an equally most holy man.

q. The name of the city had been erased in Surius's exemplar. Read: Winchester.

r. In Surius is read: utque. But variant readings of this kind, in which there is nothing of moment, I have already passed over some in silence, and shall pass over further.

s. But without foundation.

t. Surius: repraesentare.

u. Chapter 31, verse 18.

x. Read: sibi ipsi to himself.

y. All Gaul was called by the one name "Comata," say Pliny and Mela. The kingdom of France (commonly "Royaume de France") is also today indicated by one name. Ortelius in the Geographical Thesaurus at the word Comata.

z. Read: eleganter, as in Surius.

aa. Psalm 71, from verse 6 to 11.

bb. Read: stilum.

cc. 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 10.

dd. Luke 12, verse 48.

ee. St. Burchard must therefore have returned from Gaul to England: nor does anything hinder his having come into Germany from Gaul, either of his own accord or summoned by the letters of Boniface. For some from his own nation, others from the region of Francia, some also from the parts of Ireland he chose as fellow-workers for himself, says the third Life of St. Boniface, volume 1 of June, page 482, no. 4.

ff. Psalm 113, verse 9.

gg. Read: sic.

hh. In the Life of St. Boniface the archbishop, by Willibald, volume 1 of June, page 469, no. 47, these words are read: Lull, his disciple of ingenious disposition, he (Boniface) appointed to instruct the great number of so great a people, and advanced to the grade of the episcopate; of whom we shall have to treat at the 16th day of October. In the same place, no. 46, it is read that the church of Eichstätt was commended to Willibald. We treated of him at the 7th day of July. In the third Life, page 482, no. 4, there are mentioned, besides Willibald, Winibald his brother, abbot of Heidenheim, inscribed in the sacred calendars at the 18th day of December; and Wigbert, abbot of Hersfeld and Fritzlar, brought into our work at the 13th day of August. Of Eoban, Adelharius and Walther Willibald writes thus, page 471, no. 50: Whom (Boniface), to support the weakness of his aged years, he substituted as bishop enjoined on the Frisians in the city which is called Trecht (Utrecht on the Rhine), with priests and deacons, whose names are these: Wintrung and Walter together with Adelher, endowed with the priestly office. See the Preliminary Commentary on the Life of St. Boniface, §3, where more about these. Sola, abbot in the diocese of Eichstätt, is inscribed in the sacred calendars at the 3rd day of December. You will find his Life among the Antiquae Lectiones of Canisius, volume 2, part 2, page 170 of the Amsterdam edition; as also in Mabillon, third Benedictine century, part 2, from page 429.

ii. A doubt can be raised on that matter from Willibald's words: for he divides the companions of St. Boniface into three classes: first he names three priests; then three deputed to the service of Levites; four, finally, raised to the monastic order of monks; which Egilward, with no reason adduced, extends to all.

kk. Read: salvo, from Surius.

ll. Egilward begins a fable. See what is said at letter c in the Annotations on the first Life. Burchard discharged two Roman legations, one in the name of St. Boniface, as may be seen in nos. 27 and 34 of the Preliminary Commentary: but he never went to Rome as companion of St. Boniface.

mm. Surius: mutuis.

nn. Zachary did not celebrate a council at Rome except in the years 743 and 745: therefore in one or other of these years the bishopric of Würzburg by Zachary

would have been instituted: why, then, does Egilward say above at no. 21 that this was done in the year 751?

oo. To the Galatians 6, verse 2.

pp. Understand: benedictionibus blessings.

qq. Surius reads, or corrected: perficere to perfect.

rr. By the relics and patronage of SS. Kilian, bishop, Coloman, priest, and Totnan, deacon, martyrs.

ss. See above, letter nn.

tt. Surius has Adelhelmum; but the Life of St. Kilian, volume 2 of August, page 618, also has Atalongum.

uu. Nay, ten years earlier: see what was said in the Preliminary Commentary, §2.

xx. Nay, in the year 689. See volume 2 of August, page 602, no. 12.

* So Surius.

CHAPTER II.

St. Burchard's care of his flock, the second Roman journey, the twofold translation of St. Kilian and his companions made by him.

PROLOGUE.

BOOK II.

Since, helped first by the God-pleasing merits of the eminent bishop Burchard, and then, the goads of fraternal charity threatening ^a, [The author promises the rest of the saint's deeds. While the saint watches diligently over his own,] we have set out with running pen, as the grace of the Holy Spirit has granted, how the same first pastor of this church, living from his earliest age, afterwards, for the merits of his life and the teaching of wisdom, the strength of both the outer and inner man being now perfected, came to the care of the pastorate, or the summit of government, it remains, and, which we cannot deny, seems to follow, to pursue in order in some way how, having duly come to these things, he lived, and, living well, how he taught, and, teaching rightly, how, ever considering his own infirmity and not withdrawing from the head of a good beginning the tail of perseverance in the sacrifice of God, he ended himself and all his things in Him who is truly called Alpha and Omega, as he had begun. ^b The venerable bishop Burchard, then, who in the whole time of his early age, protected by the shield of faith, clothed with the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of justice, and armed with the sword of the Holy Spirit, which is the word of God, had stood unconquerable in the battle-line against spiritual wickednesses, when he saw himself placed as watchman of the house of Israel on a certain tower of the Church, so strove to stand upon his watch all the nights; so took care to lift up his voice, like a trumpet upon a high mountain, against the sword coming, that the enemy who knows not how to spare might not break into the cities of the souls subject to him while he slept, nor ravening wolves, or the lion going about, invade the folds of the Lord's sheep, and on this account the supreme Father of the family afterwards require the blood of those perishing at his hand.

[23] and by his illustrious virtues wins the love of all, With diligent anxiety of heart he also began to meditate how, with the care of a faithful and wise steward, he might rule both himself and the household of Christ, only so ^c that at the last examination of the supreme Judge he might merit the Lord's Well done. And the same servant of God was very gentle in speech, venerable and affable in countenance, diligent in vigils, assiduous in reading, sufficiently benevolent in alms as far as his means allowed, solicitous about what was entrusted to him, provident in counsels, composed in all his morals, unwearied in good deeds, raised above all in contemplation. To write anything about the humility of so great a man I should judge altogether superfluous: inasmuch as the name and office of bishop had not yet been able to be pompous, except that the very crozier ^d which is kept in the place of his burial always brings back to our memory the examples of his humility. Whence it is established how much more precious, before Him who regards humble things and knows lofty things from afar, is the pastor Burchard with his pastoral rod than modern pastors, who, feeding themselves, scarcely lack some pomp even in their very staffs. It is also said that the composure of his outward man no less suited the office divinely conferred on him, namely that, when in mature age he had begun to verge towards old age, he also bore a body comely in its very stature. Why say more? Since he seemed through all things and in all things worthy and fit for the pontifical office, it is not unfittingly believed that not without cause but deservedly he was loved by all. For how could he not be loved whom so many gifts of heavenly benefit adorned?

CHAP. I.

[24] So much, in short, was he held honourable by all in a short time, to Pope Zachary that by the counsel of the whole kingdom he was sent, together with Abbot Folrad, ^e who was also arch-chaplain, to the aforesaid Zachary, the Roman pontiff, ^f namely to consult about the affairs of the kingdom of the Franks, which already seemed to have degenerated much from its honour. That we may repeat this from further back, for example's sake: the Franks were wont to have kings from the ancient stock of kings who, from Merovech, son of Clodio, their second king, were called Merovingians; whose genealogy continued down to Hilderic, king at that time, in whom it also failed. But although it might seem to have ended in him, it had long since been of no vigour, nor displayed anything illustrious in itself except the empty name of king. For both the wealth and the power of the kingdom were held by the prefects of the palace, who were called mayors of the palace, and to whom the supreme command belonged; nor was anything else permitted to the king than that, content with the royal name only, with flowing hair and beard let down, he should sit on the throne and feign the appearance of one ruling, should hear the envoys coming from wherever, and should give them, as they departed, the answers which he had been taught or ordered, as if from his own power; since, besides the useless name of king and a precarious stipend of life, which the prefect of the court furnished him as seemed good, he possessed nothing else but one, and that a very small, ^g estate of revenue, in which he had a house, and from which he had servants supplying necessities and rendering service, of small number.

[25] he is sent by Pippin, aspiring to the kingdom of Francia: Wherever he had to go, he went in a carriage, ^h which was drawn by yoked oxen, a herdsman driving in rustic manner: thus he was wont to go to the palace, thus to the public assembly which was celebrated yearly on the Kalends of May for the advantage of the kingdom, and, presiding before the whole nation, greeting all and greeted by them, and honoured with due services; thus he returned home, and thus remained at home by himself until the next May; and the prefect of the court administered the government of the kingdom and all things which were to be done and arranged either at home or abroad. This office, at the time when the aforesaid envoys were sent, Pippin, son of Charles, ⁱ and the same the father of Charles the Great, was already discharging as if by hereditary right. Pope Zachary, consulted on business of this kind, sent back word through Bishop Burchard and Abbot Folrad that it was better that he should be called king in whom the sum of power lay, and, his authority being given, he ordered Pippin to be constituted king. This embassy being accomplished, Pippin, through the apostolic authority, which men so approved carried into the hearing of the chief men in writings and words, having been elected to the kingdom after the manner of the Franks, was raised to the throne of the kingdom by the hands of St. Boniface, archbishop of Mainz, in the city of Soissons; ^k who afterwards, anointed king and confirmed by Pope Stephen, ^l and absolved from the oath which he had made with the other chief men to King Hilderic, reigned afterwards for fifteen years. ^m But Hilderic, who bore the false name of king, having been tonsured, was sent into a monastery. ⁿ But let it suffice to have said this much about these things, which we have now touched upon only on account of our Burchard, who was present at such great affairs as an altogether vigorous envoy and fellow-worker.

CHAP. II.

[26] Blessed Burchard, then, since he did not cease to advance from day to day, from virtue to virtue, from good things to better, Returned to his see, he solemnly raises up the relics of St. Kilian, and thence his fame and memory sweetened the mouths of all far and wide as if with honey, in the second year of his ordination ^o began to treat with the bishops of the province and many religious men, but chiefly with his glorious master, the metropolitan [p] Boniface, how, by their counsel and help, he might raise the bodies of the blessed martyrs Kilian and his companions from the place in which they had been rashly placed by the unbelievers. Having gathered, then, clergy and people, he proclaimed a fast, so that they might be found worthy, by whom the holy martyrs would permit their bodies to be moved. And on the day appointed for the elevation of the martyrs, a very great multitude of peoples flowed together from all sides, some from zeal for religion, others from desire of recovering health, some also from curiosity about miracles; yet all had come together out of love and veneration for the martyrs. Then the venerable pontiff Burchard proceeded to the place of the martyrs' burial with crosses and thuribles and all the apparatus of ecclesiastical religion, and, taking a hoe, was the first to begin digging, the ministers previously destined for this work helping him. And after the earth was carried out, the bodies of the martyrs were found in a not deep trench, so fragrant that the nostrils of all standing around were filled with the sweetness of so great an odour. For while the flesh of the martyrs had been reduced to ash according to the nature of flesh, the other things which had been buried with them were found entirely uncorrupted, so much so that neither a leaf of the books nor a fringe of the garments was seen corrupted by decay. [q] At once the venerable relics of the saints are raised from the dust of the earth with the greatest rejoicing of clergy and people, and, reverently wrapped in silken cloths, are arranged limb by limb by the hands of the holy pontiff on a bier lately prepared most ornately for this very work; and again a huge concourse of peoples takes place, and thence, by the tumult of the packed multitude, the progress of both bishop and clergy is in a manner hindered. For that popular assembly strove with manifold efforts, if anyone could touch the bier with his hand, or fall down beneath it as it passed, or give thanks to God with hands raised on high, or, on the contrary, with bended knees or necks suppliantly render some devotion to the martyrs of Christ. One voice of all resounded: Glory to God in the highest, praise to our Lord Jesus Christ, and also Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, and many things of that kind. And meanwhile such signal miracles were seen to flash forth by the merits of Christ's martyrs that, if any were perhaps present who, indeed after the example of the Apostle Thomas, wavered in faith, seeing so many miracles they were strengthened with solid firmness of belief.

CHAP. III.

[27] But the glorious bishop Burchard gave as a gift to the martyrs of Christ, he endows it, nay conferred as dowry on his bride, the church of Würzburg, estates which, while staying with St. Boniface and frequenting the royal palace with him or going round the parishes, he had acquired long before, or had bought for a price into the right of his own property from freeborn [r] men. For the illustrious men and nobles of the Franks, hearing that the same man was sufficiently ennobled in his native land by all his forebears, and some moreover considering his morals, eminent in all religion and wisdom, were wont to treat with such a servant of God about the remedy of their souls, and thence believed that their goods, if they vowed any to the Lord, would be most safely kept or dispensed through his hands. And so the village which is called Michelstadt, [s] which Prince Karloman [t] had formerly handed over to him into his own right, he himself confirmed by legitimate investiture to the holy martyrs. Likewise also Hohenburg, [u] and many other allods, which he had received in various places from noble men by whatever agreement, before many

faithful witnesses and the princes of all the Eastern Franks, he invested to the relics of the same martyrs. Moreover, for the supplement of the new pontificate and the amplification of ecclesiastical worship, and also for the sustenance of the clergy, both future and present, there was conferred on St. Kilian by royal munificence the castle which is called Carloburg, [x] with the royal fisc and all the revenues pertaining to it. And this same tradition the metropolitan pontiff Boniface, together with the princes and counts discharging the embassy of King Pippin, duly confirmed to St. Kilian by royal testament and also by privileges of the apostolic prelate; and to blessed Burchard, the present bishop, he bounded dowries and tithes, and the churches contiguous to his see, into his new diocese.

CHAP. IV.

[28] At that time a certain virgin devoted to God, most noble alike in birth and in morals, was leading a most continent life on the hill and the castle of Würzburg which is now called the hill of St. Mary, or old Würzburg, with very many women of the same vow, called [y] Ymmina. [z] She had as father the son of Duke Gosbert, Hetan by name; [she] nevertheless opened all the secrets of her heart to so very wise a counsellor; among which she also brought in words of this kind with trembling lips: I believe, father, she said, and rejoice, most beloved after Christ and in Christ, that through the presence of your holiness our Lord Jesus Christ purposed before the foundation of the world, in the presence of His majesty and eternity, to exalt this neophyte church in every way, and has now begun to manifest this very thing before your [aa] eyes: wherefore, as concerns me, as far as He shall have deigned to regard the lowliness of His handmaid, the urgency of my prayers for this very thing shall by no means be lacking as long as I use these limbs; nor will I suffer it to be hidden from you, father, that already for more than forty-one years [bb] I have been awaiting, exceedingly anxious, under the doubtful struggle of flesh and spirit, the same Bridegroom of my soul, with my fellow-handmaids, who are preparing themselves with me to meet Him; but now, abundantly consoled by the consolation of your Paternity, for which I have so long ardently burned, I would wish, if it could be done, in order to avoid the tumult which the frequency of the people coming to the faith in this place will perhaps prepare from now on, to seek more fitting retirement. For I desire, like that blessed and just Simeon, since my eyes have seen the salvation of God, namely the light of this nation, to be dismissed in peace, my limbs now failing. Now there is a castle which is called Karloburg, lately conferred by divine grace for the increase of your church, once indeed the hiding-place of St. Gertrude, [cc] when for the love of Christ she fled far from the carnal , and, from the ancient dwelling of the same handmaid of God and of the others living with her, a not unsuitable habitation for nuns. If it shall please your consent and diligence, kindly father, I will receive the little monastery from you as a benefice; and this my paternal inheritance [dd] I will make stable and firm by the law of nations to the holy church of Würzburg in perpetual ownership.* Why say more? Blessed Burchard, having obtained a desirable option, voluntarily granted the precarial grant for which he was asked; nay, with much diligence and ratified stipulation, before the princes of the kingdom and especially the Eastern Franks, he confirmed to her that the venerable Ymmina should possess Karloburg with all the estates pertaining to it as a benefice until the end of her life: but that the hill of Würzburg with its appurtenances, that is, estates, revenues and boundaries and all utilities, should be subject in perpetual ownership to the bishop of Würzburg.

[29] he acquires from Irmina, daughter of the duke of Franconia, This having been legitimately delegated and corroborated with witnesses and writings, not only as a precarial grant but also as a potestative tradition, the virgin of Christ betook herself with all her people to Karloburg, and there thereafter, with many fellow-contestants, [ee] she did not cease continually to prepare herself for the meeting of the heavenly Bridegroom with vigils, fasts and prayers and all good deeds, as long as breath remained in her: and at the last, after the good fight fought, the course finished, the faith kept, being about to receive the crown of justice laid up for her by the just Judge, she is touched by troubles of her flesh, which she had so many times crucified for Christ; and not long after she heard with the ears of the inner man the voice of her Beloved, for love of whom she had languished, calling her to the heavenly bridal chamber: Come from Libanus, my neighbour, come, thou shalt be crowned. [ff] And when she had answered Him with most joyful affection: As the hart panteth after the fountains of waters, so my soul panteth after Thee, O God, [gg] having received the viaticum of the life-giving Sacrament, she manfully animated her companions for the spiritual wars, as far as she could, as she herself, so far a strong virago; to whom also amid such addresses she bade a last farewell, and soon joyfully laid down the burden of the flesh, and, joined to the citizens above, departed to the company of the Lamb of God, beautifully adorned with the palm of virginity and the martyrdom of voluntary poverty; whose venerable clod of a body the man of the Lord Burchard, having had it dutifully cared for, duly laid up in the same church of the Mother of God, once built by blessed Gertrude, beside the altar towards the north, with fitting obsequies, commending her soul to Christ. From then until the present day each of the aforenamed castles passed entirely into the ownership of St. Kilian, the holy pontiff Burchard providing; and from so auspicious a beginning of that management and acquisition the new planting of the bishopric of Würzburg began to be enriched and enlarged in every way, as it is this day.

CHAP. VI.

[30] But let us turn back a little to the things above. into which he brings the relics of St. Kilian, Immediately after the event of the same exchange which Bishop Burchard had made with the noble bride of Christ Ymmina, having called together on a certain day both clergy and people, he caused the bodies of the martyrs, lately raised from the dust of the earth, to be carried with the greatest veneration up the oft-said hill, crowds of peoples accompanying; and so, like a true living creature of heaven, eyed before and behind, both foreseeing the future and guarding the past, or fortifying the present, he established Col. 585D the investiture of the same possession perpetually for his patron, the martyr Kilian. For through a continuous three years there, in the basilica of the holy Mother of God, he kept those most sacred relics, reverently watching over them with unfailing office of all religion, both by himself and by the whole clergy that adhered to him; [hh] and because the same place had of old, under the ancient dukes, been the stronghold and head of Eastern Francia, and lately the first foundations of the nascent church had been laid there, he strove to enlarge it with all zeal, as far as he was able, and proposed to institute there the principal monastery of his see, where the beginning of salvation of that nation and province was first initiated. And while, meditating such things day and night, he rolled a huge stone of anxious solicitude, especially since he reconsidered that both the roughness of the hill and the steep ascent and the scarcity of water would generate every kind of inconvenience for those whom he was arranging to gather there to serve God as soldiers, at length he transferred the whole intention of his heart to the accustomed solaces of prayer and the refuge of divine counsel, so that He who had designated to David in the field of Areuna [ii] a place for His tabernacle might deign now also to show to His nascent church the predestined place, fit for ever generating new offspring for Himself and for His other ceremonies.

CHAP. VII.

[31] Furthermore, the same leader of the people was wont, with Moses or Aaron, to seek answers from the tabernacle of the divine clemency for all the anxieties which, admonished by a vision presented to him, by which he was afflicted; and not only this, but also, with Jacob, after the weariness of Lia, that is, of the active life, to run back to the embraces of Rachel, that is, of contemplation: while he was once applying himself more watchfully to pursuits of this kind, and, as truly a member of Him of whom it is said, Watchman, what of the night? [kk] was guarding the flock committed to him, saying in his heart, not with words but with deeds, standing upon his watch all the nights; while, I say, he was so standing, very intent on heaven with eyes and hands, suddenly with bodily eyes he sees as it were three burning candles carried through the air by a certain divine power from the same basilica in which the relics of the martyrs were kept, which, let down across the river in the place of the martyrs' burial, after the space of one hour were seen to return to the hill whence they had come. The man of God understood through the Holy Spirit that the vision itself was the presence of the holy souls visiting the place of their passion; and when he had related this to the brethren and the peoples, it seemed good to all that the monastery which he was arranging to build on the hill he should rather build about the burial-place of the martyrs, where he had seen the light come down from heaven; which, first begun of wooden material, [ll] was afterwards brought to perfection with a more careful structure of stones by the holy pontiff of God. Where also the bodies of the saints were brought back again and laid up in an elaborate sarcophagus. [mm]

[32] into the church built by himself In which place, by the merits both of those and of blessed Burchard, the new bishop of a new see, the benefits of our Saviour are never lacking to those who do not cease to seek these things with a believing heart. In short, the Truth, which promises to its lovers: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world, [nn] he translated, where both he himself and St. Kilian shine with miracles. does not cease to work here also, that is, at the tombs or confessions of the martyrs, both bodily and spiritually, what it has fulfilled elsewhere both in deeds and in words. The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, etc. For, as we are taught everywhere by the writings of the fathers, when unbelievers are illuminated by the knowledge of truth and faith, what is it but that sight is opened to the blind? When the ears of hearing the hidden things of the divine word are unlocked, for those not knowing them, through the words of expositors, what is it but that hearing is opened to the deaf? The lame walk when, void of good works and of the rightness of the way, they do not hesitate, according to the precept, to make paths of justice and straight steps under their feet. The dead rise as often as those overwhelmed by mortal crimes, breathed upon by the Holy Spirit to lay hold of eternal life, awake through penance. These and such fruits of the divine seed growing up in the fallow ground of the church of Würzburg we not unfittingly ascribe both to the solicitude, not slothful, of blessed Burchard, the indeed ever-watchful husbandman, and to the industry of blessed Kilian, the first planter; and therefore it is clearer than light that it is worth the labour, since we glory together in the merits of both, if truly and worthily as members, or rather little members, that we should not, which God forbid, like wicked sons, transgress the boundaries which they set by their good examples and which we approve as worthy of praise, but rather, by imitating their examples and trusting in their prayers, make faith in our words by works.

ANNOTATIONS.

i. Surnamed Martel.

p. In the 2nd year of St. Burchard's ordination, or 742 or the following, he was not yet metropolitan: but he was in 752.

q. Mabillon, in the Annotations on the Life of St. Burchard, confirms these things from the Martyrology of Notker at the eighth day before the Ides of July. A stable had been built over the holy bodies, as Egilward relates in the Life of St. Kilian: but where they were laid when dug up he is silent.

r. Or free.

s. A town today situated in the county of Erbach.

t. Carloman did not preside over Austrasia except from the death of Charles Martel, that is, from the year 741: if, therefore, St. Burchard received it from Carloman, certainly this will not have been done long before his episcopate, contrary to what Egilward writes.

u. Hohenburg, or Homburg, is a castle of the prince and bishop of Würzburg, situated not far from Gemünden, at the confluence of the Main and the Saale.

x. A castle in the bishopric of Würzburg near Karlstadt on the Main.

y. In our manuscript is corruptly read: vocem.

z. Eckhart, Res Francicae, book 20, no. 4, writes that Heden the elder, duke of Thuringia, which then comprised Franconia, had sons, a certain anonymous one, and Gosbert; who by Geilana, the wife of the anonymous brother, begot Heden or Hetan, who died in the year 717, the father of Ymmina or Irmina.

aa. Surius: nostris [our].

bb. Hetan the younger, her father, was still among the living in the year 716, as follows from his charter, by which he gave the castle of Hamulo to St. Willibrord, exhibited by Eckhart, book 22, no. 2: Irmina, therefore, had not dwelt in the castle of Würzburg for so many years; unless she is said to have dwelt in it together with the other virgins while her father was still surviving, which indeed appears less probable.

cc. St. Gertrude is indeed venerated in Franconia; but who she was is not sufficiently clear. See the Dissertation subjoined to the Life of St. Gertrude of Nivelles at the 17th day of March, and Mabillon, third Benedictine century, after the Life of St. Burchard.

dd. Hedan, Irmina's father, is read in the Life of St. Kilian to have been expelled from his dominion; which being supposed, it may seem strange that the castle of Würzburg, the principal seat of the family, was left to Irmina. However that may be, credence certainly seems to be due to Egilward in this place when he affirms, from the monuments of the church of Würzburg, as it appears, that the castle of Würzburg passed from Irmina into the right of Burchard.

ee. Understand: companions fighting the same fight.

ff. Canticle 4, verse 8.

gg. Psalm 41, verse 2.

hh. That three years, in which St. Burchard religiously guarded the bodies of SS. Kilian and the companion martyrs, may perhaps have been incomplete: but when did he translate them into the castle of Würzburg? Since in the year 742 or the following, that is, in the second year of his ordination, as Egilward writes, he raised their bodies from the ground, and Egilward asserts that the bodies of the holy martyrs, lately raised, and moreover immediately after the exchange made with Irmina, were translated into the castle of Würzburg, nothing prevents their having been translated thither in the year 743 and kept until the year 746.

ii. Rightly: wrongly in Surius is read in Areuna: for Areuna is the name not of a place but of a Jebusite king. See 2 Kings, chapter 24, verse 16 and following.

kk. Isaiah 21, verse 11.

ll. Since the bodies of the holy martyrs rested only three years in the castle of Würzburg, they were probably translated into this wooden church in the year 746, while meanwhile a more august cathedral church was being built of stone; although Egilward has not mentioned this translation, perhaps as less celebrated and made only for a time.

mm. Probably in the year 752; the stone cathedral church being now brought to completion.

nn. Matthew 28, verse 20.

Supply: commercium* intercourse.

CHAPTER III.

He founds the monastery of St. Andrew, leads St. Gumbert to a holier life, having abdicated the episcopate dies at Hohenburg; and is buried at Würzburg in the church founded by himself.

CHAP. VIII.

Meanwhile the same saint, although, as we have often touched on before, He founds the monastery of St. Andrew, he was sometimes troubled with Martha by very many anxieties of the active life on account of the care of the Lord's vineyard, still uncultivated, yet delights as often as possible to seek refuge at the feet of Jesus, and there with Mary, protected under the covering of Christ's wings, to hear more intently in assiduous readings the word of God, of which he knew himself a debtor to others, saying within himself: I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me; [a] whence, when he attended to Paul saying to him: Labour as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, ^b and other such things, he never granted to his stewardship the delay of leisure, but that, as we have already said, he watched either over the ministries of Martha or over the contemplations of Mary. Wherefore he accordingly took care to provide for himself a workshop of the same exercise, namely after the example of blessed Martin, he had built a cell separated from the tumults of the bishopric for the same cause; on the narrow slope of the oft-said hill and at the flowing of the river Main he began to institute a monastery, which, consecrated also in honour of the holy Mother of God and of the holy Apostle Andrew, he endowed with so great a quantity of estates as would suffice for food and clothing for twelve brethren, canons, serving God as soldiers there; among which, as dowry, he granted to the same monastery the aforesaid hill of Würzburg with its estates and revenues, as he had acquired it from the daughter of the aforesaid Duke Hetan; and he established the same donation by the law of nations before all the chief men of the province, twelve brethren under the canonical life being ordained there for the service of the Lord. ^c The servant of God himself also, as long as he lived, dwelt in that same place in person, as one fleeing from the whirlwind of secular cares to the tranquillity of such a harbour, ^d and did not cease with the greatest diligence to cultivate it with necessary expenditures according to the amount of his means, perhaps chiefly for this reason, that, the Holy Spirit showing it beforehand, he foreknew that the remains of his body would at some time be laid up there, until, clothed with the second robe, namely of immortality, this mortal should obtain the incorruption of eternal life. He also laid up in the same basilica with worthy veneration the body of a certain martyr named Magnus, whose Life and Passion, as it has been brought to us by report rather than by writings, we subjoin without fear ^e; because, while we relate things neither seen by us nor heard from those who saw them, we fear to incur the mark of falsehood, if not wholly, yet in part, which God forbid. But because we know that Mark, Luke and many other writers of the divine law set down things heard rather than seen, by the same licence we presume to narrate to you the things handed down about the martyr great ^f in merits and by name Magnus. And the tradition of the elders on this head is of this kind.

CHAP. IX.

[34] A certain servant of God, they say, named Magnus, and enriches it with the relics of St. Magnus, martyr. coming from England, was joined to the college of disciples of his fellow-countryman blessed Burchard, and, the happy disciple of a happy master, was exalted quite excellently above the rest by his teachings and examples in the progress of true philosophy and at the summit of highest contemplation; at whose progress the benevolent master rejoiced not moderately, and, admonished by the spirit of divine counsel, meditated most inwardly how he might make this olive, fruitful to himself in the secret places of the house of God, flourish also like a palm in the courts of the same house of God, that is, make it more widely spread in outward utilities in hope of supreme beatitude. While he frequently enjoyed the conversation of so great a man on this matter, in order that, the quality of his mind being thoroughly explored, he might more cautiously begin what he intended, having obtained his wish in this, he found the spontaneous consent of the disciple to the things he had proposed. When, therefore, blessed Burchard had perhaps heard the report of an evil rumour, namely that certain peoples of his native land were not walking rightly according to the norm of the faith, kindled with the zeal of charity, he destined the aforesaid servant of God, taught in the divine laws, whom * intent on all good arts, promoted also to the monastic habit and the grade of the priesthood, thither to correct the errors of his native nation, ^g not that he might usurp to himself the care of another's diocese against the canons, but because he was not ignorant what he deserves who causes a sinner to be converted from the error of his way. The servant of God Magnus (who was also Andrew: for he had two names), receiving with all humility and obedience the command of the father who ordered him, supported by very many companions, revisited his native land, and, not to dwell on many things, not long after, by those whom he had come to recall to the way of truth, resisting cruelly, he received the crown of martyrdom together with many others cruelly slain with him. The course of whose history, because we have not yet received it to the knowledge of certainty, we forbear to relate more hence. One thing only that we know we speak, and what is necessary to be known we do not hide: that the body of the same blessed man, cared for with what veneration they could by those who had escaped the death of the passion, and carried to blessed Burchard through long spaces of sea and lands, received with the greatest rejoicing of clergy and people, was laid up with fitting reverence, according to the writings, [in] the basilica of blessed Andrew the Apostle.

CHAP. X.

[35] Amid these things and after these things there shone without intermission the light of so great a lamp, burning with faith and love, St. Gumbert shining in word and action, nor could the lamp of the Saviour, kindled with fire, set upon the candlestick of pontifical honour, be hidden: whence very many flocked together from all sides to the hearing of so great a teacher, of different sex and condition, every soul thirsting for the fountain of life. Of whom a most illustrious man named Gumbert, renowned in all honesty of morals and nobility, was joined to his companionship, so that, softened from the swelling of secular pride by his company and conversation as by certain medicines, he might at some time be able to lay hold of the ascents of the highest philosophy, which is contempt of the world. ^h But because he who walks with the wise shall be wise, as on the contrary the friend of fools shall become like them, not long after he delegated his estates, in which he abounded as one dwelling in this region, into the ownership of St. Kilian, and soon, having laid down his arms, renounced the world: and thus, naked, carrying his naked cross after Christ, he began by no means to desert Burchard. And these are the possessions with which he largely enriched the bishopric of Würzburg: Eltimoin, ⁱ Onoltesbach, ^k each with its revenues and appurtenances; the former of which, though it was once a most strongly fortified castle, now declares its magnificence by its ruins alone. And the following, which is now a provostry of canons, the testimony of that province, inherited from the elders through many generations hitherto, does not conceal to have been formerly a not undistinguished abbey.* ^l

[36] he leads to holiness of life, Furthermore, the aforesaid elder Gumbert, from then on always cleaving to the footsteps of his most perfect master, joined such praiseworthy successes to the good beginnings of his conversation that always

the mouths of all resounded with his conversion. Everywhere it was said: This is the change of the right hand of the Most High. For the hearts of many were roused to imitate him, so much so that from that time the church of Herbipolis ^m did not cease to be enriched with very many gifts and offerings of the faithful, until from a very small and poor one it was made by grace a great and ample commonwealth; and the abundance of goods does not yet cease to grow, the number of the faithful indeed growing. To whose progress that apostolic saying seems not unfittingly to be applied: Kilian planted, Burchard watered, but Christ gave the increase. [n] But indeed the same eminent man Gumbert, [as] he had formerly proved himself vigorous in the pomps of secular dignities, so after his conversion he suffered himself to be held second to none among the followers of blessed Burchard in spiritual conversation; ever aiming unswervingly at his pattern, he ruminated more frequently on that saying of the Gospel: Every one shall be perfect, if he be as his master. [o] He also, after the course of the present life was well completed in the service of Christ, according to the promise of blessed Burchard, possesses a sepulchre in the same monastery which he had given to the church of Christ, where the benefits sometimes granted at his intercession make manifest how much it profited him to have followed the admonitions of blessed Burchard.

CHAP. XI.

[37] Let these things, then, though few out of many, concerning the virtues, teachings and examples of blessed Burchard, spoken according to the capacity of our poor little wit, suffice; broken by old age, which, culled indeed from certain accounts of those of old, written quite simply, [p] had come into our hands. For the rest, if anyone should attempt to note down all the signal marks of his merits in fitting writings, without doubt the superabundant copiousness of the material would bring about a failure of time or of wit. Wherefore let us now nevertheless turn our weary pen to this: how, after the prolonged pilgrimage of his sojourning, as a soldier now discharged or a hart desiring the shade, freed from the body of this death, he was brought into the joy of his Lord for the talent well gained. The glorious bishop of the Lord, Burchard, then, after he had borne in the vineyard of the Lord the burden of the day and the heat with long-suffering patience, firm faith, certain hope and most fervent charity, from the morning of boyish age to the evening of an almost decrepit old age, as is said of blessed Martin, failing in the limbs of the flesh, but no less strong in vigour of spirit, the nearer he foresaw the dissolution of his flesh to be threatening, the more he feared the incursions of wolves upon the sheep entrusted to him, frequently uttering to his disciples that saying of the Apostle: I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ; [q] for it is much better: but to remain in the flesh is necessary for you. At length he took counsel with the elders and magnates of his church, how he might, through himself, while he was still living, if it could be done, provide himself a successor sufficiently fit for the people of Christ.

[38] Soon grief and mourning for the near, as if already present, having substituted bereavement of their father filled the hearts and mouths of all together, as is easily believed. And he himself, although restraining from weeping, nonetheless wept. For the compassion of mutual love has this property, that in business of this kind it makes each one's grief its own. Yet by their counsel and advice he sent a certain Count Liutfrid to the emperor Charles, and again others of his clergy to Lull the metropolitan, acting both by words and by letters to this end, that Megingaud, a man praiseworthy in all things, might be substituted in the see of Würzburg for the sick and now failing bishop Burchard, lest perhaps, the shepherd departing, the new flock of Christ should be the more sharply disturbed by the unforeseen incursion of the roaring lion. The embassy being accomplished, both sets of envoys return, bringing back the consent both of the king and princes and of the archbishop and the other fellow-bishops; in whose presence, the whole clergy and people having been called together to the city of Würzburg, blessed Burchard, placed in the midst, as his very weakness permitted, addressed those standing round with a speech of this kind: Dearest brethren and sons, hear now and understand the last discourse of your father, and, having understood, commend to the tenacious memory of your hearts the cry of your decrepit shepherd. It is written: "Whatsoever the Lord pleased He hath done": [r] and again: "From generation to generation the Lord hath shown mercy." [s] The Lord willed by grace, and did by power, that you should be freed from the worship of idols, in which your fathers had been entangled, and be numbered by the faith of Christ in the liberty of the sons of God, as may be seen at present. And He did this from generation to generation, first through blessed Kilian from Scotia hither into Francia, [t] then through our master Boniface, nonetheless from England, to you and to all Germany; lastly, as one born out of due time, He destined me to your hearing, by no means disdaining to make known His will to you through so small a servant of His.*

[39] as his successor From then until now, as you know, "I have not shrunk from declaring unto you all the will of God." [u] Now therefore, my little children, of whom I am again in labour with the Apostle Paul until Christ be formed in you, show yourselves such in faith and work, that I may not have laboured among you without cause. Besides this, if any of you has a complaint, let him not delay to bring it forward at this hour, to receive all justice without delay. Behold, I, in this pilgrimage which I had undertaken for Christ, worn out by long old age, am no longer able to preside over you, O my bowels: but after a little I shall enter on the way of all flesh, hoping for a reward from the good Father of the family for my service, such as it is. Wherefore, as a faithful father, I give to faithful sons most faithful and useful counsel; and that you may receive it I ask by admonishing, and, asking, faithfully admonish, that you cause one of our brethren and fellow-soldiers, chosen by you through the Holy Spirit with the concordant affection of charity, to obtain the place of my prelacy and mastership; lest perhaps, I being suddenly withdrawn, the vacancy of this see be prolonged to its injury, or, what is more dangerous, its occupation be effected by a stranger and one less fit. At these words the voice of the peoples unanimously cried out that no one had ever been provoked or injured by him, but rather that every sorrowful soul had always been relieved from anguish through his consolation, as also the erring brought back to the way of truth. But concerning the substitution of another bishop, of which he had forewarned, the only answer of the magnates and of those who were of sounder counsel was this: Since, most loving father, they said, the law of the flesh now requires that we be deprived of your most delightful rule, we by no means judge this to be of our election, but rather of your provision; nay, we most inwardly beseech that it be disposed through the spirit of God dwelling in you, how another fit leader may now be substituted for the people of God, whom for so many years you had led towards the fatherland of the promised eternal inheritance.

[40] Megingaud, Soon the eminent shepherd, delighted with the pious desires of the sheep of Christ, and, all bursting into tears, himself weeping with them, at length brought into the midst Megingaud, a man approved in all things, and by his own testimony and that of the whole clergy standing round proved him most worthy of the episcopate. The envoys above-written were present with letters of the king [x] and princes, and also of Lull, metropolitan of Mainz, confirming in all things the election of Megingaud. [y] At once, clergy and people acclaiming together, blessed Burchard duly commended the see of the bishopric of Würzburg to the oft-said Megingaud under the witness of Christ and the Church, and presented to him before all the charters of the royal traditions, or privileges of the Apostolic See, with the whole investiture of the goods of the bishopric, and so venerably enthroned him after the ecclesiastical manner and with the greatest devotion, with the favour also of all the clergy and people who had come together; and lest anyone perhaps blame this deed as less canonical, let him remember that the prince of the Apostles with his own hands placed Clement on his chair; and that Lull also, who at that time held the see of Mainz, had been substituted for his archbishop and master Boniface while he was still living.

CHAP. XII.

[41] These things, then, being done, blessed Burchard strengthened with fatherly admonition, and sealed with divine blessing, the whole band of monks, thinking of Michelstadt, by whom at that time almost all the ecclesiastical offices were administered irreproachably; and also the crowd of clerics and laymen of different condition, sex and age. After this, taking with him only six monks out of the multitude of all his disciples, he went on board a ship; he also caused the books which he had either himself written or gathered from wherever to be carried with him, [z] and thence by the course of the river he set out by boat to the castle which is called Hohenburg, [aa] and there, as long as he survived, persisting in divine contemplation, namely in vigils, fasts and prayers, he continually stayed with the aforesaid brethren. Now there is a certain little village named Michelstadt, [bb] which Karloman, [cc] brother of Pippin, had once handed over into the ownership of the same priest of God for the remedy of his soul: thither the most holy father had proposed to transfer himself and to institute a monastic congregation there, and there to await the end of the present life: but, divine predestination so disposing, the setting of common hereditary mortality forestalled the wishes of human deliberation. For not long after he had settled in the aforesaid castle together with those who, after many sweats of the active life, had already chosen with him the best part, a bodily ailment more grievous than usual attacked him, and so from day to day, the outer man failing, the inner man began to be renewed to receive the prize for which he had long sighed; until, as the Holy Spirit had revealed to him long before, he deserved to be happily dissolved, to remain thenceforth with Christ: placed indeed in this agony through the whole time of that sickness, he consoled and exhorted his soul, which was lingering and, as it seemed to him, refusing to depart, with the canticles of the Psalmist: Why art thou sad, he said, O my soul, and why dost thou disquiet me? Hope in God, for I will still give praise to Him, the salvation of my countenance and my God. [dd] And again, turning to Christ: As the hart, he said, panteth after the fountains of waters, so my soul panteth after Thee, my God. My soul hath thirsted for the living fountain: when shall I come and appear before the face of God? [ee] And that: How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God.* [ff]

[42] he dies at Hohenburg in the year 791, And while, as he thus prayed, sang psalms and gave thanks in his infirmities, often also comforting the brethren and his fellow-pilgrim disciples, the languor did not cease to grow heavier hour by hour, he fortified beforehand with provident skill the near journey of his passing, both with the viaticum of the Lord's sacraments and with all the offices which religion demands or furnishes, of Christian faith, hope and charity, and, commended through all these things into the hands of the Lord, breathed forth his spirit. For forty years in the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth the faithful servant and unwearied labourer had borne the burden of the day and the heat; therefore, ever intent on the prize of everlasting reward, not undeservedly he is led out rejoicing from ^e the prison of the flesh, and, because he had always been faithful over a few things, now to be set over many things, he is led out into the joy of his Lord with angelic companions on the fourth day before the Nones of February, receiving indeed from the good Father of the family the reward

of his labour, entering the most bright mansion on that very day on which the blessed Mother of God presented in the temple of the Lord the Author of light with the substance of our flesh. And he died in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 791; and after receiving the pontificate, in the fortieth year, as we have said. [gg]

[43] [whence his body, brought back to Würzburg by Megingaud, is buried beside St. Kilian and his companions.] Bishop Megingaud, therefore, cared for the precious body of his most beloved master with all the veneration he could, and, troops of the faithful flowing together from all sides, who lamented with the entire affection of sons the departure of their most holy and singularly beloved father, carried it with the greatest company and fitting veneration into the city of his see, Würzburg. Here the people of almost the whole province ran to meet it, here the whole nobility with the common folk receive their shepherd, not, as once, with a song of joy, but with exceedingly bitter wailing; and so they attend the venerable obsequies venerably, until they behold the holy body buried with fitting honour beside the relics of the martyrs Kilian and his companions. In this place, in short, the Lord often declares, to those seeking Him with full faith, through miracles of healings, how much the merits of these His elect avail with Him, while He does not cease to glorify even here those whom He has already placed with Himself in eternal glory.

[44] The author's exhortation to the people of Würzburg. Let us also glorify and praise God, glorious in His saints; and them in His gifts and benefits, who rendered to them grace for grace, for the merits which He had granted, the promised rewards. Moreover, let us give huge thanks to our Saviour without intermission, recalling how much we owe Him for our gratuitous redemption, who, besides the innumerable beneficences of His mercies, called even from a far land this man of His will, of whom we have woven the present text, for dispensing the effect of our salvation, and through his ministry adopted as sons to Himself us who were once not His people nor His race: and lastly, having translated the same so faithful, so prudent servant of His to those above, that is, into the joy of his Lord, He constituted him for us a patron henceforth present with Himself, so that the sons of this church, both present and to come, may be strengthened by his merits and prayers in the perpetual faith of Christ and in approved action, by whose teachings and examples we have been formed in the same faith of Jesus Christ our Lord, the eternity of whose Godhead, with God the Father co-eternal, and the Holy Spirit of both co-eternal, abides ineffable and one before all things and through all times: He also rules and governs infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

a. Psalm 84, verse 9.

o. Luke 6, verse 40.

p. He seems to indicate here the first Life.

q. Philippians 1, verse 23.

r. Psalm 113, verse 3.

s. Luke 1, verse 50.

t. Eastern, or Franconia.

u. Acts 20, verse 27.

x. Of Charles the Great, as Egilward judged: more truly of Pippin.

Eckhart here charges Egilward with error, contending that Megingaud was adorned with the mitre of Würzburg not by Lull but by Boniface, both from Liudger in the Life of St. Gregory, abbot of Utrecht, and from the epitaph of Megingaud which is seen even today in the crypt of St. Kilian. Liudger indeed writes that Megingaud was a fellow-worker of St. Boniface, and illuminated his city (Würzburg) like Lucifer rising in the morning: but that he was ordained by Boniface was said from Wandelbert at no. 37; and the ancient epitaph of Megingaud, which is seen in the crypt of St. Kilian, inscribed on his sarcophagus found in the year 1711 in a dark corner of the church of the New Minster, confirms it; it runs thus:

*Here beneath the turf is covered the body of a famous bishop; Earth holds earth, the spirit seeks the stars. Magingod in this lot was the second bishop, And was ready in pious office. … Boniface once brought him to the honour of the citadel, And established him in sacred rank. He lived in this world a chaste prophet without crime; Dead in Christ, he plucks the rewards, rejoicing.*

z. There exist in the library of the cathedral church of Würzburg various codices written in Anglo-Saxon characters, which St. Burchard is believed partly to have collected, partly to have written: they contain collections of canons, various homilies, and some treatises of the Fathers. From St. Burchard's codex of homilies Eckhart edited at the end of volume I Homily III in great part, and XX and XXIII entire, from which you may easily gather St. Burchard's great care to root out the remains of paganism and sacrilegious superstitions.

aa. See the Annotations at letter u of Chapter II.

bb. See letter s in the same place.

cc. See letter t in the same place.

dd. Psalm 41, verse 6.

ee. Psalm 41, verses 1 and 2.

ff. Psalm 83, verses 1 and 2.

gg. Nay, in the year of Christ 754, the 13th of his episcopate.

Supply: qui*.

Supply: non*.

* [It] is superfluous.

Supply: prae cunctis*.

Supply: magis*.

Supply: iniit*.

Supply: illos*.

Supply: secesserat*.

CHAPTER IV.

An enumeration of some of the saint's successors, and the translation of his relics to the monastery of St. Andrew made by Hugo of Würzburg.

PROLOGUE.

BOOK III.

[To what has been said hitherto he professes that, by his abbot's command, he adds certain things, and chiefly the translation of St. Burchard.] By the grace of God going before us by inspiring, accompanying us by cooperating, and following us by perfecting, from whom is every best gift and every perfect gift, we have now set out, according to our ability, the praises of our blessed first hierarch Burchard, only those things which we do not doubt suffice in general for all who do not disdain to read them, both for the instruction of belief and of perfect renunciation, and for the example of good action and of highest contemplation and true preaching, with the integrity of twofold love. But now, since it pleases your kindliness, father, let us add to these two little books which go before, containing the matters already told, a third also, whose intention and usefulness indeed is to make known to posterity both his translation and the past and present state of your monastery, which was first founded by him, but afterwards sufficiently ennobled by the presence of his sacred body. After the burial, then, of the same most holy father, which, as is written above, was contiguous to the relics of the holy martyrs, the Lord magnificently declared by many miracles the merits both of blessed Burchard and of the same martyrs, and therefore a frequent concourse of the people takes place there, now for the obtaining of health, now of those seeking support for various necessities; which, although we do not find them written down through the carelessness or negligence of our elders, yet we believe, entrusted to truthful accounts, to be by no means difficult to credit. Wherefore, leaving these untouched, lest perhaps, as is wont to happen in this matter, we should of our own accord open the mouths of our detractors, let us turn our pen, in a fitting order of narration, chiefly to those things which were done or are being done in our times at the relics of our most holy patron Burchard.

CHAP. I.

[46] After the departure of blessed Burchard, then, Megingaud, a man, as was said before, praiseworthy in all things, Megingaud succeeded the saint, who substituted Bernwelf for himself, ever intent on Catholic and orthodox institutions, ruled the bishopric of Würzburg for fifteen years. [a] He, then, fellow-pilgrim and fellow-countryman of the blessed Boniface, Burchard, Lull and the rest whom divine love had brought hither from England, and also a monk by profession, as they were, ^b in no way changing or tainting the rigour of his resolve, ever irreproachable, wonderfully powerful in words and examples, held the helm of the pontifical office. Whence he was an object of love and honour together to all persons, secular as well as ecclesiastical, who knew him. At length, become weaker with old age, and moreover, perhaps for the increase of his merits, feeling himself grow more vehemently ill, and soon remembering the example of his predecessor and master, having sent envoys both to the princes of the kingdom and to the priests of the churches, by the consent and counsel of all he substituted for himself in the episcopate one of his clerics named Berwelf, with Lull the metropolitan and Willibald, bishop of Eichstätt, cooperating with him in the same ordination, before the whole clergy and people of that church: and so, the goods and possessions, namely movable and immovable, which pertained to the bishopric having been left to the same successor, he himself, with a few, migrated to a secluded place handed over to him by a certain Hatto.

[47] ungrateful to his master and hostile to the monks, There remained, however, at the monastery of St. Kilian more than fifty brethren, as we read elsewhere, whom also not long after Bernwelff, having expelled them with injuries, compelled to sail to their master Megingaud. Besides this, the same Bernwelff harassed the blessed man with many outcries about various furnishings which Burchard, the confessor of Christ, had left in priestly vesture, or books, and some household goods; the manner and end of which dispute, however, if anyone wishes to know, he will be able to find written by a certain monk who was then present. In short, the bishop substituted inflicted so great and so long-lasting a disquiet on his former father and master that, affected with weariness, he committed himself and his disciples, and the place itself also, which was then called Rorinlacha (Niwenstat) and afterwards Nuvenstat, to the patronage of King Charles, and with his help instituted there a monastery to be inhabited by himself and his monks. ^c Where, while

they lived for some time praiseworthily and religiously under the wings of the most sacred emperor, ^d unharmed by any secular molestation, as pleasing both to God and to men, Bishop Megingaud entered the way of all flesh, full of good works, to receive the prize of eternal reward. [e] His disciples soon elected Waltricus from among themselves as abbot; and, bringing him to the palace by command of the most pious Charles, they confirmed him by his authority, according to what he had promised Megingaud.

CHAP. II.

[48] Amid these things there comes back to memory what I can by no means pass over in silence, whom for the priestly ministries yet, to avoid the scandal of our neighbours, let what I say be said in the ear of your Dilection. It can be gathered from the whole course of the present little work, nay, the history itself which we have in some way committed to letters, supported by truth clearer than light, constantly teaches, that Eastern Francia was won for Christ by the insistence of the holy preachers Kilian, Burchard and their companions; that almost all Germany was directed into the hand of truth and salvation by the teaching of the great Boniface; that Alemannia was made fruitful by the seed-beds of Gall, Burgundy of Columban, Bavaria of Corbinian, and also of Rupert or Emmeram; all of whom, a very few excepted, the holiness of the monastic profession and habit commended to the universal Church, and the more sublime they were made in heavenly contemplation through contempt of the world, the worthier they were held of the priestly office, and the more apt among men in the ministry of preaching. Since these things are so, nay, because no one doubts that they are so, I wonder with what face certain persons presume to forbid monk-priests any ecclesiastical offices whatever, if indeed they do not deny that they themselves are sons of the Church, initiated through the offices of regeneration by the same preachers in the order which we have said before.

[49] the author proves to be fit and worthy: Yet, lest these presume to attack us more sharply as rash defenders of our own party, let them read again the decree of Gregory the Great promulgated against that same schism, and also the sentence of Boniface, who governed the Apostolic See fourth after him, agreeing on the very same point. For blessed Gregory says among other things: It seems to us that it is more worthily lawful for those who leave their own for God, and take the beginnings of a changed conversation from His passion and death, to baptize, to give communion, to impose penance, to loose sins. And after a little: We judge, therefore, that monks may preach, baptize, give communion, and absolve penitents, according to the constitutions of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers. Likewise the aforesaid Boniface on the same matter: There are, he says, some of a foolish doctrine, inflamed with the zeal of bitterness rather than of love, asserting that monks, because they are dead to the world and live to God, are unworthy of the priestly office, and cannot grant penance, or Christianity, or absolution through the grace enjoined of the priestly office. But they are altogether deceived, etc., as far as this: Contending, therefore, against them, we command that monks are by no means lacking in the priestly office in this matter, so that they may be restrained in future from such wicked attempts: for the higher anyone is, the more powerful. ^f We, then, having inserted these few things solely against those who strive before our eyes to blot out the footsteps of our fathers, or to hide snares for our feet, although very many more sentences of the Fathers abound which oppose such envy, are pleased to turn back our pen to what was omitted.

CHAP. III.

[50] After Megingaud, successor of blessed Burchard, Bernwelff held the see of Würzburg for seven years: [After Bernwelf, Lintrig, etc., Hugo becomes bishop, who, the monastery of St. Andrew having been restored and given to the Benedictines,] a man, as they say, beyond others very hostile to monastic religion, which can also be gathered from what is above. After him Lintrig, three years, five months. After him Egilward, six years, one month, twenty-three days: after him Wolffger, twenty-two years, six months: after him Humbert, ten years, three months, eight days: ^g after him Arn, thirty-six years, six months, twelve days; after him Rudolf, seventeen years, three days: after him Diedo, twenty-four years, two months, fourteen days: after him Burchard, nine years, three months, twenty-three days: after him Boppo, twenty years, ten months, fourteen days: after him Poppo, twenty-three years, four months, twenty-one days: after him Hugo, six years, seven months, twenty-one days. He, since he was acceptable to all and in all things most worthy of the pontifical mitre, was at every moment anxious about rendering the account of his stewardship: whence, among other things, perceiving that the little monastery which, consecrated by blessed Burchard in honour of blessed Andrew the Apostle and of St. Magnus the Martyr, we described in the former little book, ^h had almost wholly fallen away from all zeal of religion, namely both by the negligence of the superiors and the insolence of the subjects, and that thence, what seemed to follow by the just judgement of God, the necessaries of food and clothing were lacking to the few themselves who had remained, impelled by divine providence he gathered there brethren of the monastic institution, and resolved to dedicate that same place and all things pertaining thither to the honour not only, as before, of Andrew the Apostle, but also of the eminent confessor of Christ Burchard, the first founder.

[51] the relics of St. Burchard Having chosen, then, a fitting time of the year for such business, having called together from all sides both the neighbouring princes and the captains of his church themselves, and also all the clergy and people, he set forth before all the intention of his premeditation; and, because he related that this very thing which he had proposed had been granted to him by the supreme pontiff of the Apostolic See, who at that time was called Benedict, [i] and that the consent of the Roman emperor ^k to this was not lacking, all consenting and following his devout intention with worthy praise, he at once proclaimed a three-day fast, and, this being completed, proceeded to the tomb of the blessed confessor of Christ Burchard with a huge multitude of the faithful resounding with devout praises. Then, having raised with worthy reverence the most holy body, he reverently translated it to the above-mentioned monastery. [l] The venerable relics having then been laid up there venerably, as was fitting, the aforesaid pontiff Hugo enlarged that same place with tithes and boundaries as much as he could, and richly endowed it with estates and revenues, books and utensils.

[52] And from that day he instituted that the monastery itself should be ruled, protected and named he solemnly brought in, and willed that it be called St. Burchard's also. by the patronage both of blessed Burchard, confessor of Christ, and of blessed Andrew the Apostle. Then, with the counsel and consent of his clergy he decreed, and confirmed by the ban of pontifical authority, that thenceforth on the fifth feria the solemnity of the same translation should be celebrated; and that on the three preceding days, the second, third and fourth feria, there should be abstinence from the eating of meat throughout the whole bishopric: ^m a synod also should be held by the bishop with all the clergy, and so, the council being finished, wax of the price of two pennies should be offered by each parishioner at the same relics. And the body of the holy martyr Andrew or Magnus, of whom we made mention above, the venerable bishop Hugo translated from the same monastery in which St. Burchard had laid it up into the city, and, associating it with the relics of the holy martyrs Kilian and his companions, established that festive service be shown to it yearly. From this time the monastery, blessed by the presence of St. Burchard's body and more especially surnamed by his name, began to be enlarged with estates, buildings and money, and to be both loved and honoured by the townspeople as well as by those of the province, so much so that some, renouncing the world, offered themselves to God there with their goods; some also, offering their sons to the Lord with an oblation, devoted them there to serve Christ under regular discipline.

[53] The author's epilogue. These are the things which, concerning the life, conversation, death or translation of our holy patron Burchard, we have striven to search out and gather, according to the measure of our poor little wit, through the truthful account of the fathers who went before, or through various exemplars. For the rest, if anyone wishes to correct what is inept in these or to add what is apt, we willingly assent with a simple heart. Moreover, the miracles by which the Lord has often deigned and deigns to declare the merits of His elect, we ask those who always keep the watches of his most holy body to note down here. So indeed, so the just man will be in everlasting memory; so [in] His just ones our Lord Jesus Christ, ever praiseworthy and glorious, is praised and glorified. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

are read with the words conceived somewhat otherwise from time to time: the last clause of the decree there runs thus: Therefore, contending against those who keep presbyters of the monastic profession from the office of priestly power, we command in every way that they be restrained in future from such wicked attempts, because the higher anyone is, the more powerful.

l. About the year 984.