ON SS. THE THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY MOORISH MARTYRS, AT COLOGNE,
Under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian.
HISTORICO-CRITICAL SYLLOGE.
360 Moorish MM., at Cologne. (SS.)
BY S. D.
§ I. The memory of the Martyrs from the Hieronymian lists: how many in number and from what nation they were: whether they were of the Theban legion: when and where they underwent martyrdom: where their bodies were buried.
To the precincts of Cologne, not long ago watered with the blood of St. Gereon and his Companions, The holy Moorish Soldiers, not otherwise is added a new cohort of other Champions descending into the same arena, namely of the holy Moorish Martyrs, whom the church of Cologne recalls today, and whom various Martyrologists variously announce. I shall take my start from Ado, whose text for today runs thus: In the Gauls, at Cologne Agrippina, of the Holy Moors, of the soldiers of St. Gereon. Who, being of the sacred legion of the Thebans, when they were fifty in number, consummating their Martyrdom at the same city, were laid in a basilica which, by wonderful work in mosaic, shines as though gilded; whence the inhabitants also have been accustomed to call them the Golden Saints. That Ado drew this Elogium from Gregory of Tours was long ago observed by Cornelius Bye in his Preliminary Commentary on St. Gereon and the other martyrs Act. SS. 10th of October, p. 22. and by Sollerius in his observation for today on Usuard; nor will anyone deny it who has considered the following words of the man of Tours, book I of the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 62 Bibl. Max. Patt., vol. XI, p. 848. Lyon edition, year 1677.: There is at the city of Agrippina a basilica in which fifty men of that sacred legion of the Thebans are said to have consummated Martyrdom for the name of Christ. And because, by wonderful work in mosaic, it shines as though gilded, the inhabitants have chosen to call the basilica itself the Golden Saints. But since both St. Gereon with his Companions and the Moorish Martyrs, as we shall see below, the same arena and the same
obtained a place of burial, it is plainly uncertain whether Gregory of Tours meant to designate by those fifty men of the Theban legion either our Moors, or Gereon with his Companions, or at least some of these.
[2] than drawn from the Hieronymian lists by the Martyrologists, Ado had doubtless learned from the Hieronymian Fasti that Gereon's troop had numbered many more than fifty soldiers; and since the same Fasti were deeply silent about the number of the Moors, he judged that Gregory's text must necessarily be understood of them. But besides the fact that the Moorish Martyrs themselves, as will become plain below, were more than fifty, indeed surpassed Gereon's cohort in number, we shall see below that it is more probable, indeed certain, that the Moors were not soldiers of the Theban legion, but another body carried thither in ships from the shores of Africa. Usuard, who had Ado before his eyes, seems to have had an inkling of this; for, removing the word Moors from Ado's announcement, which I transcribed above, he substituted the other word Martyrs, impelled most probably by this reason, that he doubted whether those whom Ado announced today were soldiers of the Theban legion or not. But anyone who has maturely weighed the cited Commentary of Bye from no. 35 up to no. 45 will judge it much more probable that Gregory of Tours is to be explained not of the Moors but of Gereon's troop or some part of it. I pass, therefore, to the Hieronymian apographs, of which the Lucca one in Fiorentini celebrates our Saints today thus: In Gaul, at Colonia Agripina, the birthday of the Holy Moors, of the soldiers. With this the Corbie one nearly agrees; but the Echternach one, or, as Fiorentini calls it, the Antwerp one, does it more confusedly in the following words: Ides of October. In the Gauls, at Colonia Agrippina, the birthday of the Moors. So these three unabridged Hieronymian apographs in Fiorentini.
[3] and variously numbered Similar things are found in the Auctaria of Bede, which Florus and others inserted into his list, empty today, as can be seen in volume II of March of our Work, to which the same Bede with the Auctaria of Florus and others is prefixed. But since these too, as I said above, do not express the number of the Champions, recourse must be had to the Martyrologies of a later age, which Sollerius subjoins to the Usuardine lists, as for the most part its Auctaria, after his Observation. The number of fifty Martyrs was retained by the codices of Centula and of the Matricula of the Charterhouse of Utrecht; but the greatest Antwerp one, the Utrecht one, the Leiden, Louvain, Albergen and Danish ones unanimously count three hundred and sixty, and add these words: Under the persecution of Maximian, and with their leader Gregory. With the aforesaid agree Greven and Molanus, of whom the latter adds in the text, in other letters, from Ado: Laid in a basilica which, by wonderful work in mosaic, shines as though gilded, whence also the inhabitants have been accustomed to call it At the Golden Saints. The former, however, inserts this further down: Note: the aforesaid Martyrs, 360, were from Mauretania, which is part of Africa, not from the legion of the Thebans, although Ado and Usuard have it so: and they came to Cologne by ship with their leader Gregory. In the Lübeck-Cologne edition of Usuard you have the following added besides: With their leader Gregory and blessed Constantius they completed the course of their contest, and with blessed Gereon and his Companions chose the perpetual rest of their blessed bodies in a basilica which, by wonderful work in musco (mosaic), shone as though gilded. But these things must be treated in their place; so, lest I wander further from the purpose, namely from inquiring into the number of the holy Moorish Martyrs, let us hear how others determine it.
[4] numbered, The present Roman Martyrology celebrates today only three hundred Martyrs, subjoining to the words of Usuard: Who in the persecution of Maximian completed the course of their contest. The same number is kept by the Antwerp, the Max-Lübeck, and the Ughelli codices; but from these and the others just adduced the Hagenoy one again differs: At Colonia Agrippina, it says, outside the walls, the birthday of the Holy Moors, eum forty; but, as Sollerius thinks, eum is formed from CCC, so that CCCXL should be read. What then, in this variety of the Martyrologies, is to be determined about the number of the Moorish Martyrs? Helinand, monk of Frigidus Mons (in French, Froidmont) in the diocese of Beauvais, who lived in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in the Acts of SS. Gereon and his Companions, after relating their Martyrdom, proceeds thus: At the same time, soldiers summoned by the emperor from Mauretania, which is part of Africa, and the neighbouring regions, on account of the frequent tumults of the Gauls, came into Gaul, of whom three hundred and sixty, slain together there for the Catholic faith, chose with blessed Gereon and his Companions the rest and perpetual veneration of their blessed bodies. These Acts of SS. Gereon and his Companions are extant in a MS. Codex of our Museum formerly the Bollandian, marked PMs. 159: but in Surius, who edited the same at the 10th day of October, there are read only 350 Martyrs; but since the MS. of Saint-Omer and the Utrecht one of St. Saviour, which are apographs of Helinand, likewise have 60, it seems that we must stand entirely by the reading of our Codex.
[5] they were more probably 360, There are added Peter de Natalibus, book IX, chapter LXVII, and the Mombritian Compendium of Helinand Vol. I, fol. 218 verso.: and that the Moors were in fact 360, I judge the more credible for this reason, that the biographer of St. Anno, archbishop of Cologne [whose Acts will be published at the 4th day of December], counts as many. He was contemporary with St. Anno, and so lived about the middle of the eleventh century, and is praised more than once by Cornelius Bye in his Commentary on SS. Gereon and his Companions, Martyrs. Hear, then, his words from the fourth Trimester of Laurentius Surius At the 4th day of December, p. 143.: In this precinct of the Saints, as report speaks, after the slaying of blessed Gereon and his companions, soldiers from Mauretania, three hundred and sixty in number, likewise slain for the faith, merited the same rest with blessed Gereon, as of their souls, so also of their bodies. Since, therefore, in the age of St. Anno, or the eleventh century, there was already a report or tradition that those Martyrs were 360, I have no doubt that either the same tradition, perhaps much older than St. Anno, or at least the Life of St. Anno itself, supplied the same number to Helinand.
[6] under the leader Gregory; But whether, just as from the Acts of Anno it becomes credible that the cohort of the Moors numbered 360 soldiers, so it likewise turns out probable that their leader was George, and that he was killed together with them? Although the Hieronymian apographs, indeed also all the other records older than the biographer of St. Anno, are silent about any such name, I nevertheless think it probable that the leader of the Moors was in fact called George or Gregory, from this, that the biographer of St. Anno without any doubt, whether he learned it from other documents or from the ancient tradition of the people of Cologne, attributes such a name to him; for, after relating the vision of St. Anno, of which below, with a few things interposed, he proceeds in words of this kind: All these things, as is seen today, having been beautifully completed, he next applied himself to seeking out the bodies of the holy Relics. And in the striving of this hope, uncovering the ground paved with marble within the enclosure of the temple, he found the chief of that holy fellowship, namely of the blessed Moors, George by name, with his companions resting round about, buried more carefully than the others, wrapped in a purple chlamys, the extremities of whose borders ended in a remarkable weaving of gold. So indeed the Acts of Anno in Surius express the name of the leader of the Moors; but whether this was rightly transcribed by Surius I not only doubt very much, but judge it much more likely to have been interpolated there, and that Gregory must be substituted, as Aegidius Gelenius, Erhard Winheim and all the others whom it was possible to consult unanimously expressed it. [We have lately received a Life of St. Anno carefully written on parchment, in which the name of the leader is expressed as Gregory.]
[7] who, summoned from Mauretania, Besides Gregory, the leader of the Moors, I read of two others named, namely Constantius and Marcinus; but what is to be thought of these I shall say below; now I pass to the nation of the Martyrs. That those three hundred and sixty soldiers were summoned by the emperor into Gaul from Mauretania and the neighbouring regions, on account of the frequent tumults stirred up there, Helinand in the Acts of Gereon, the monk of Siegburg in those of Anno, as these already cited show, and not a few others constantly taught, with no one asserting otherwise. But since Mauretania was already then divided three ways, namely into Tingitana, Caesariensis and Sitifensis, it is uncertain from which part of it they came down, nor does it matter much; for it suffices for us that these Martyrs were called Moors in the most ancient Hieronymian codices and other records of advanced age, by which name among the Latins (the Greeks call them Maurusioi) only those peoples who were sprung from Mauretania were at all times designated. Just as, then, no one, whether of the ancients or the moderns, denies that our Martyrs were Moors by nation, so besides Usuard, whom we have seen following Ado in error, there occurs only one, Peter de Natalibus, who makes the same Martyrs soldiers of the Theban legion, book IX, chapter LXVII, cited above, writing thus: Three hundred and sixty Martyrs suffered at Colonia Agrippina. Who, since they were Moorish soldiers of the sacred legion of the Thebans: and when those were slain, these had fled from their fellowship: being found by the soldiers of the Emperor Maximian at that very city: they too were slain with swords on the Ides of October.
[8] to settle the Gallic tumults, But that Ado and Usuard and Peter himself were alike deceived is shown by this, that at the end of the said chapter he cites both those martyrologists; indeed, with these most probably as his guides, he went so far as manifestly to confuse the 360 Moorish Martyrs with the companions of St. Gereon, when treating of these in chapter XLVI of the cited Book. I said that Peter did this most probably with Ado and Usuard as his guides; for if you except these, you will not easily find any ancient document which can in any degree prop up Peter's opinion. For as regards the Hieronymian apographs in Fiorentini, these indeed teach that our Martyrs were soldiers, but not of the Theban legion, as, says Fiorentini, Helinand also professes, and as we saw above observed by Greven. It seems, then, says Tillemont Mém. pour serv. à l'hist. eccl., vol. IV, p. 431., to be far from likelihood that the Moors were soldiers of the Theban legion. To what body they did belong I have already often hinted; for I judge them to have been no other soldiers than a cohort or half-cohort of another legion, which, summoned by order of Maximian from Mauretania to suppress the Gallic tumults together with the rest of the army, landed with a single fleet on the European shores, and so further on at the borders of Gaul.
[9] That the aforementioned tumults of Gaul, on the occasion of which both the martyrs of Agaunum, or Maurice with his companions, and Gereon with his, and ours most probably underwent martyrdom, on the occasion of these were stirred up by the peasants, who gave themselves the name of Bagaudae, Helinand in the Acts of Gereon and Eutropius in his Breviary, book IX, hand down to memory. Sent to quell them, Maximian Herculius Caesar, with light battles, says Eutropius in the same place, subdued the rustics, and occupied part of Gaul, in the year, as Pagi computes in his Critica, 285, or at least, as is agreed among the learned, the next following. After these times, proceeds
the same author, Carausius also … when a suspicion had begun to arise that the barbarians were deliberately let in by him, so that he might catch them as they passed with their plunder, and by this occasion enrich himself, being ordered by Maximian to be killed, assumed the purple and occupied the Britains. It came about through this rebellion of Carausius that Maximian sent part of his army towards Colonia Agrippina, by which to render the attempts of the rebels vain. Helinand relates the affair thus: But when it was discovered that a certain Carausius, a nobleman, was contriving plots against the borders of the Roman realm, who had nevertheless been appointed procurator of the province which is beside the Ocean, where the Franks, already driven a second time from their seats, had settled near the borders of the Gauls and the Saxons, he (Maximian) sent thither, by the channel of the river Rhine, part of his army, by whose military valour the wicked undertaking might be brought to nought. On this march the happy squadrons of Christian soldiers followed the chief leaders of the Lord's war, Gereon, Victor, Cassius and Florentius.
[10] their Martyrdom, After their departure, as the same Helinand narrates, the raging against the Martyrs of Agaunum began; and when these had been killed, not long afterwards Cassius and Florentius at Verona or Bonn, and Gereon with his men in the precincts of Cologne, underwent the same lot. Helinand proceeds, and after relating the martyrdom of SS. Victor and his companions at the town of Xanten, speaks thus of our Moors, as we have seen above: At the same time soldiers from Mauretania, which is part of Africa, and the neighbouring regions, summoned by the emperor on account of the frequent tumults of the Gauls, came into Gaul; of whom three hundred and sixty, slain together there for the Catholic faith, chose with blessed Gereon and his companions the rest and perpetual veneration of their blessed bodies. That these things happened shortly after the slaughter of Gereon's troop and in the same arena is proved by the following words of Anno's biographer, likewise cited above: In this precinct of the Saints (in the precinct of Cologne), as report speaks, after the slaying of blessed Gereon and his companions, soldiers from Mauretania, three hundred and sixty in number, likewise slain for the faith, merited the same rest with blessed Gereon, as of their souls, so also of their bodies.
[11] under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, With these things premised, it would not now be so laborious to arrive at the fatal year of the Moorish Martyrs, provided it were established at what time the martyrs of Agaunum suffered; for, as is clear from the Commentary prefixed among us on the 4th day of October to the Acts of the Martyrs of Trier, and from the text of Helinand just cited, St. Gereon with his Companions, and therefore our Saints too, survived not long after the slaughter of those of Agaunum: but since the year in which that happened is unknown, I have thought it better to place the Martyrdom of our Saints only in a broader way under the rule of Diocletian and Maximian, as Bye also preferred to mark that of SS. Gereon and his companions, in his Commentary prefixed to their Acts, § VI; with this restriction, however, that on account of the reasons alleged there it ought more probably to be fixed in the span of time which runs from the year 285 to the year 297. That the day of the year which was the last for the Moors was the 15th of October is made quite likely by this, that both in the most ancient Hieronymian Martyrologies and in others edited by Martène [Vol. III Anecdot., col. 1615, and vol. VI, Collect. ampliss., col. 676, 683 and 725.] they find a place on no other day than the 15th of October, on which also their feast is kept by the people of Cologne from time immemorial. But since this cannot be proved from elsewhere, leaving the day as well as the year of death undecided, I make the passage to the arena of the Saints.
[12] they underwent in the precincts of Cologne, Aegidius Gelenius [De Magnit. Colon. Book III. Syntagm. II, §2, p. 262.] speaks of it thus: Now the renowned Martyrs, who were to be the future protectors of Cologne, suffered about the place where the basilica of Gereon is seen, and there still exist traces of names which lead by the hand to understanding this slaughter. For on one side of the church, towards the East, is situated the court called of the Holy Moors in old charters, now the vineyard of St. Andrew, commonly called Morthoff; and to the West, outside the city, a sacred building, and formerly also a monastery at the Martyrs, now Mæchteren, a little parish subject to the provost of St. Gereon. Likewise in Colonia Supplex p. 85.: There exists today, outside indeed the walls of old Cologne, but enclosed by the walls of present-day Cologne, a very notable vineyard of our collegiate church of St. Andrew, situated near St. Gereon, commonly called Mordthoff, but formerly named the court of the Moors, which seems not obscurely to show by its title traces either of the Moors or of the slaughter carried out there. To the same point tends the fact that there was formerly nearby a monastery of virgins, now an estate with a chapel called At the Martyrs, which the common people with a twisted name call Mechteren. From these words of Gelenius it becomes, if not certain, at least probable, that the Moorish Martyrs obtained the palm of Martyrdom in that place which, before the city was enlarged, was reckoned among the precincts of Cologne.
[13] a most noble basilica erected shortly after over their Bodies And if we believe the same Gelenius p. 84., it happened under the very walls of old Cologne towards the northern quarter, about the praetorium or gate which is now called St. Helena's within the city, before the monastery of St. Clare. Gelenius proceeds, and explains what was done with the bodies of the Saints in these words: There were at that place at that time marshes and pools, and they have remained in some part to our age. In these the impious sank the bodies of the Martyrs like marsh stakes; but those who feared God laid them up exalted with greater honours than the bodies of emperors. For under Constantine the Great, when peace had been restored to the churches, when public power was granted to the Orthodox of building temples and memorials of the martyrs, St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, helping the people of Agrippina at royal expense, ordered the bodies of St. Gregory and his Moorish companions, where they had rested for almost the fortieth year, gloriously collected, to be laid up and preserved with equal glory. That St. Helena built over the bodies of SS. Gereon and his companions and also of the Moorish Martyrs a basilica of exceeding nobility, the biographer of St. Anno asserts in the following way, in Surius at the place cited above: But among the many structures of antiquity in which the city (of Cologne) itself nobly excels, the building of blessed Gereon was formerly celebrated as outstanding, which Helena, a most Christian matron, mother of Constantine, erected in round form at royal expense, shining without and within so with marble beauty and the light of gold that it was called At the Golden saints. In this precinct of the Saints, etc., as above at no. 5.
[14] a most noble basilica. Helinand extols that basilica more in the Acts of Gereon: She (St. Helena), he says, indeed made, among the very many notable works of her devotion, over the bodies of the same holy Martyr (Gereon) and of his companions, where also the above-mentioned holy Martyrs (the Moors) rest for the singular refreshment of the mourning and the sick, a remarkable church of wonderful and lofty structure, which no one at all could either explain in the meaning of speech or imitate in the art of the work, and which she so decorated with the gleam of metals and the variety of craftsmanship, and also fortified with strong and lofty walls, that it is related in common speech that nothing surpassing it either has been or will be throughout all those regions. Besides which it is denied to have had any wooden material, or any that would so easily yield to age or neglect, since there was so great an abundance of marble solidity there that the whole work was propped up by the strength and beauty of columns of that kind; and so much of golden gleam shone out in it that, gleaming with mosaic elegance without and within, it obtained from the inhabitants the name At the Golden saints. And in fact that a church of this kind existed at Cologne in the age of Gregory of Tours, or the sixth century, is clear from the words of Gregory himself, brought forward at the beginning of this Commentary: but whether it was in fact erected by St. Helena, as the people of Cologne believe, may not undeservedly be called into doubt; for besides the fact that the man of Tours is deeply silent about it, you will not easily adduce any sufficiently ancient records by which it could be proved even from afar. This matter has been treated more fully by Cornelius Bye in his lucubration already often cited, and by John Pinius in the Commentary prefixed to the Acts of St. Helena on the 18th of August; referring the reader to these, I go to consider in the following § those things which more specially concern our Saints, namely their posthumous glory.
§ II. The wonderful finding of the holy bodies: their cult, and the Relics preserved in various churches of Cologne: a prodigy which some write was wrought there, rejected as of suspect credit.
St. Anno, warned in a vision That the memory of the Moorish Martyrs was so obscured by the lapse of time that in the eleventh century they obtained scarcely any cult is established from the Acts of Anno, already more than once cited by us, in which, after the words transcribed here above at no. 5, there is subjoined the vision shown to St. Anno, framed in these words: But they were held in rather negligent veneration by the people, because, having on the south side of the temple a crypt of their memorial rather low, and fit for the reception of few because of its narrowness, through the rarer access over the succession of ages they had been almost taken away from memory. Which negligence, growing over many years, lasted thus even into the times of St. Anno, until one night, while he was resting, he was struck by a salutary blow of a revelation of this kind. Lifted up into an ecstasy of mind, he saw a multitude of the same Martyrs of Christ, namely the holy Moors, gathered with a great glory of light as if to a council in one place. When, fixing his wondering eyes on them, he waited in the highest expectation to see what end the vision itself would have, he was at once snatched away and received, as one to be examined, the place which was in the middle of the assembled multitude, all looking back at him with grim aspects. And when a subtle discussion was being conducted either of his works or of his merits, there arose from that holy Assembly a general clamour of great complaints, they complaining that through the carelessness of his predecessors they had endured contempt for so long a time, and had not thus far received the cult of any veneration from the fellow citizens of his city: that they were more deeply moved in this, that however it had been dealt with towards them by the earlier bishops, of him, of whom hope of better zeal was held, there was no less neglect towards them.
[16] and sharply chastised, After these interpellations of the Saints, when he was strictly questioned by way of rebuke, why * by rashness he had held so many witnesses of the truth in such cheapness, finding no place for excuse, he was ordered by the sentence of all to undergo the scourge of just vengeance. And so, stripped of his garment, he was severely handled with blows. But labouring suppliantly in his torments, with sighs and a promise of every amendment, that he might be spared, he was at length dismissed on this same condition, and awoke from a very heavy sleep, burning with great dread, so trembling, and so bearing himself in the whole habit of his body, as if he were still quivering under the scourges. Soon coming back to himself, having the understanding of the dream not from elsewhere but sensibly from the wounds inflicted on his very body, he said that those must necessarily be placated * in whom, being angered, a mind of such bitterness dwelt: and that it was greatly to be feared lest, if they were stirred up again, not as before, any breathing
space might be granted to him. Having therefore gathered men industrious and ingenious, to that same basilica of round form, breaking through the old wall on the eastern side, he joined a new building, which, with the walls laid out lengthwise, rising laboriously above through ascents most seemly to the sight into a striking choir and twin towers, unfolded below a crypt of great capacity.
[17] he lays up the holy Bodies, when found, in a more honourable place; Adding moreover this or that ornament of colours or metals, he merited a title of outstanding praise thus, with verses set beside the same paintings: “Moved by the Lord's admonition, bishop Anno Offers whatever he can have to divine worship, And ordered the fathers of the city of Agrippina, friends of holy virtue, To be painted in order standing by. For these the faithful man himself will rejoice in the heavens.” All these things, as is seen today, having been beautifully completed, he next applied himself to seeking out the bodies of the Holy Relics. And in the striving of this hope, uncovering the ground paved with marble within the enclosure of the temple, he found the chief of that holy fellowship, namely of the Blessed Moors, * George by name, with his companions resting round about, buried more carefully than the others, wrapped in a purple chlamys, the extremities of whose borders ended in a remarkable weaving of gold. Raising him with some others from the sepulchre above the altar with due reverence, he broke out in the praise of Him who was the author and bestower of such treasures: and thenceforth the name and memory of the Holy Moors grew more celebrated through all the corners of Cologne. In what place St. Anno laid the body of St. Gregory, leader of the Moors, Gelenius teaches in De Magnitudine Coloniae Agrippinae, at the place cited above, in these words: Now I proceed to review the holy relics in the church of Gereon, namely St. Gregory the Moor, the place where whose body was once laid or dug up is shown in the crypt by that monument which, set upon 4 columns, has these verses inscribed: “Gregory, prince of the Moors, climbing the heights Of the heavens, gives himself and his cohort to death. In this tomb is laid the body of St. Gregory, Prince and Martyr.”
[18] That the said translation of St. Gregory is commemorated annually in the church of St. Gereon on the 25th day of June the same Gelenius is witness De Magnit. Colon., book IV, p. 699.; but whether it was carried out on that day by St. Anno whence the increased cult among the people of Cologne, his biographer does not report, nor could I investigate it from elsewhere. Meanwhile I think it probable that St. Anno, having been so received with scourges, took care, just as with St. Gregory's, so also to have the bodies of his Companions placed in a more seemly place, and omitted nothing that could in any way conduce to promoting their cult, which afterwards became most celebrated at Cologne, as is shown by the various Relics publicly exposed or kept in various churches there. Gelenius, reviewing those churches and the pledges of our Saints preserved in them, in book III of De Magnitudine Coloniae Agrippinae, writes thus in Syntagma IV, in the collegiate church of St. Cunibert p. 228.: A coffer laid to the right of St. Cunibert preserves Relics of the Holy Moors. In Syntagma VII, in the collegiate church of the B. V. M. at the Steps p. 309.: The western choir of this Marian church at the Steps has an altar enclosing five bodies of the Holy Moorish Martyrs. These were brought by Bl. Anno into the crypt which was under the choir, but were translated by those after him and placed on the altar in which they are now kept, with such an inscription: “In this altar are laid five Bodies of the sacred Moors, once reverently translated hither from the crypt of this church.” Likewise he relates that in the reliquary of the same church are preserved 12 various Bones of the Holy Moors. In Syntagma XI, in the collegiate church of St. Cecilia p. 360.: Heads from the companies of the Moors… placed in most seemly cases, clothe the wall of the church. In Syntagma XXXVI, in the church of SS. John and Cordula p. 445.: Of the company of the Martyrs… of the Moors.
[19] as is shown by various In Syntagma XXXVIII, in the church of the Body of Christ of the canons regular, after enumerating the relics of the same church p. 450., he subjoins this: And these are the principal ones, besides others from the company of SS. Gereon and the Moorish Martyrs. In Syntagma XL, among the relics of the church of the Carthusians p. 455., no. XI, he lists the Skull of St. Marcinus from the company of the Moors: but I suspect that this name, as also that of Blessed Constantius, which the Lübeck-Cologne edition of Usuard has above at no. 3, was imposed at will by later men, for this reason, that I find no document in antiquity in which, besides St. Gregory the leader of the Moors, anyone else is addressed by a proper name. Gelenius proceeds, and coming to the monastery of St. Clare, of conventual virgins of the Order of St. Francis, asserts that in its monastery p. 541., no. II, are laid up Four heads from the legion of the Holy Moors. Likewise Syntagma LIV, no. XIV p. 543., in the church of the monastery called the GARDEN OF THE B. V. M., of virgins of the Cistercian Order: Two parts of a head of the Holy Moors. Syntagma LVI, in the church of St. Maximinus, of regular virgins under the rule of St. Augustine p. 547., no. VIII: Three heads from the company of the Holy Moors. Syntagma LVII, in the monastery of SS. Bartholomew and Aper, of virgins of the Cistercian Order, no. VIII p. 550.; About eighty heads from the companies of the eleven thousand virgins, and of SS. Gereon, of the Thebans, and of the Moorish Martyrs.
[20] Relics either publicly exposed or kept: Syntagma LXIX, in the monastery of St. Michael, of regular virgins of the Order of St. Augustine near St. Cecilia, no. VI p. 581.; Three heads from the cohort of the Holy Moors. Syntagma LXXIV, in the monastery of the B. V. M. in Bethlehem, of virgins of the third rule of St. Francis, commonly in der Romersgassen p. 587., no. IV: Two ribs of the Holy Moorish Martyrs. Syntagma CIX, in the chapel of the Dutch College of SS. Boniface and Willibrord p. 616.: some bones of the Holy Moors. Thus far from Gelenius. Erhard Winheim adds the collegiate church of the Holy Apostles, which he teaches likewise possesses notable particles of the Holy Moors Sacrar. Agripp., p. 68.. Besides these holy remains preserved at Cologne, that St. Norbert received some and translated them elsewhere is indicated by his biographer Act. SS. 6th of June, p. 835, no. 48.: When this (a certain body of a virgin of Ursula's company) had been received with hymns and praises of God and thanksgiving, two little vessels, in the form of a bier, were also filled for him to carry away with relics of other Virgins and of certain other Martyrs, namely of Gereon, of the Moors, of the two Ewalds. But whether our holy Parent carried them with him to Prémontré, as he did the remains of SS. Gereon and of the two Ewalds, I would not dare to affirm. And although I nowhere read of others translated elsewhere, and consequently the cult of the Saints outside the walls of Cologne is perhaps not so celebrated, yet I read their annual feast inscribed in the old Breviaries of Tongres, Worms, Utrecht, Trier, Speyer, Dendermonde, Antwerp, Hamburg, Erfurt, Osnabrück and Liège. But if it were otherwise, or they were venerated nowhere but at Cologne, that this most ample city abundantly makes up for it is shown, as we have said, even by the Relics alone already reviewed, either publicly exposed or most honourably kept in various churches there.
[21] and, if indeed some writers narrate truly, Nor did the people of Cologne venerate these Athletes of Christ in vain; for if those things are true which Crombach Ursula Vind., vol. II, p. 893., Erhard Winheim Sacr. Agripp., p. 52., Antonio Macedo De Divis Tutel. Orb. Christ., p. 389. and others narrate, it was chiefly by the help of these and other Martyrs that the city of Agrippina in the thirteenth century was snatched from the most imminent danger with which a siege threatened it. Hear the whole affair from Crombach at the place cited: True, he says, is that saying of a certain pagan, that cities are better girded by religion than by walls: ecclesiastical histories are full of examples of Tutelary Saints who by their protection preserved cities almost seized by enemies. The city of Cologne experienced this often at other times, and then strikingly in the year 1266, or, as others will have it, 1269, when in the utmost crisis and danger of surrender, the Saints, seen present on the walls, brought help to it in its distress. For when at that time the neighbouring princes had girded it with a siege, and it did not seem able to endure a long assault, since not so much earlier the citizens, divided by intestine hatreds and various feuds, could easily have clashed again through mutual enmities, it nevertheless pleased the Divine Goodness at that season, through the intercession of the Tutelary Saints, to rescue Cologne from destruction.
[22] by their help and that of other Saints the city of Cologne The count of Cleves lay in his tent about to take sleep in a place from which a view lay open towards the city, which in the dead of night he sees shining, bathed in light; for, torches having been lit near the walls, the whole region round about was bright; amazement shakes off his sleep, especially when he notes one light among the rest flashing like the sun, which he observes the queen St. Ursula, crowned with a golden diadem, as leader of the army, carrying before her in her hands: the eleven thousand virgins followed behind her: after the Maiden army came troops of men, both of the Thebans and of the Moors, with SS. Gereon and Gregory as leaders and standard-bearers: the military wedges of the heavenly ones went outside the city near the walls, and went round the whole semicircle of Cologne in order; in such a way indeed that whenever they drew near to a gate anywhere, the queen, leader of the army, signed it with a rose-coloured cross: then the Virgins and all the other Martyrs fortified each gate with the same seal against the assaults of the enemy: and now, when they had duly gone round both the field region of the city and the bank of the Rhine, and on returning had reached the gate of the fish-pond (which retains its old name today), behold, it was at once thrown open with its bolts undone, and all the Tutelary Saints return into their city.
[23] was prodigiously freed from the danger of surrender; The petty lord of Cleves (Winheim calls him a knight) spent that night sleepless, transfixed with dread and amazement, and with him a certain Stephen (Macedo gives him the surname Vuylen), a gilded count, who alone had beheld that prodigy: they, when they saw that they were warring in vain with heaven and the Saints, struck terror into the whole camp as the sky grew white; and by their departure persuaded all to flight. The affair is narrated, besides the Cologne Chronicle, by Bredenbach and Schulting, who adds that the Mother of God went before with a torch, and assigns a torch to each one, and finally that the intermediary of peace between the citizens and the archbishop was sent, Bl. Albert the Great (he who about ten years later solemnly elevated St. Cordula), bishop of Regensburg, who composed every dissension with rare happiness and dexterity. The sequence of the affair is carved in stone on the walls of the city; and the senate of Cologne, in memory of this heavenly benefit and in thanksgiving, is accustomed, on the very feast of the Holy Moors, the 15th of October, to send as a gift to the basilica of St. Gereon ten very great candles, which are then seen burning for 24 hours in the crypt of the Holy Moors: because it is believed that the vision appeared on that night which precedes the feast of the Moors. Almost the same things, but more briefly, are related by Antonio
Macedo; but although both, to win credit for their narration, cite in the margin, besides Bredenbach, Schulting and the Cologne Chronicle, the MS. Chronicle of Burgrave Steindorp, William Baldesanus and Jacob Monteirsius, nevertheless, if you except the Cologne Chronicle and that of Burgrave Steindorp, which I have not been permitted to see and therefore to examine, the other writers cited by them are too recent for credit to be given them at once, especially as regards things so prodigiously done.
[24] but because that event by other writers Our Bye touched on this matter briefly in his Commentary, already often cited by us, at no. 45, on the Posthumous Glory, declaring in advance that this prodigy seemed suspect to him; but because it concerned the Holy Moors more, since it was wrought on their night, than SS. Gereon and his Companions, he left it to this day to be examined more accurately. In order, therefore, to do so, having searched through various Chronicles of Germany and elsewhere, I found indeed that the city of Cologne was freed about that time from the danger of surrender, but nowhere do I read that it happened miraculously. Levold of Northof, who lived a little after, in his Chronicle of the Mark, or of the counts of the Mark, in Henricus Meibom, at the year 1269, relates this about Cologne Rer. German., vol. I, p. 390.: In the year 1269, on the night of the Moorish Martyrs, the lord of Valkenburg, brother of Engelbert, archbishop of Cologne, with his accomplices tries to steal in by night under the walls of Cologne: but battle is joined with him, and he himself with many is killed in the city. The author of the Great Belgian Chronicle, which John Pistorius edited Rer. German., vol. III, p. 284., written about the end of the fifteenth century, as can be deduced from its end, ties the affair to the year 1268.
[25] is related without mention of the vision, His words, therefore, because he narrates the matter more explicitly, I transfer here from Pistorius: When the lord Engelbert had been freed from captivity at Cologne, his kinsmen, exasperated on account of the injury done by the citizens, namely the archbishop's brother, the lord of Valkenburg (Theodoric), the duke of Limburg also (Walram), the count of Cleves (Theodoric), and the nobleman of Heinsberg (Theodoric), in the year of the Lord 1268, having gathered a strong band of armed men, stole into the city of Cologne in the silence of a certain dead of night, through a certain house adjoining the city wall, a wide entrance having been opened through the city wall by some citizens corrupted by fraud or money: but the citizens, knowing it beforehand, shouting to arms, drove back the said nobles by armed force: where the said lord of Valkenburg, brother of the archbishop, is killed in the first encounter: the duke of Limburg is captured: very many others are killed: others slip away in flight. But that no miracle intervened here is most clearly established from the Hirsau Chronicle of John Trithemius, where at the year 1269 the aforesaid deliverance of the city of Cologne from danger, and the manner in which it happened, are set out far and wide.
[26] and on account of the other reasons adduced here, It is necessary, therefore, either that there was another deliverance of Cologne, of which Crombach and others wrote, or that this prodigy was unknown to Trithemius and the other chronologers already cited, or rejected as of too suspect credit. That the deliverance of Cologne of which Crombach and Trithemius speak was entirely the same, Crombach himself insinuates openly enough; for the danger threatening the city arose from no other source than by reason of the dissension between the citizens and their archbishop, who, having enrolled soldiers, was trying to recover the city by guile (for he had been expelled from it with his followers). But if you absolutely wish Crombach to be understood of another siege of Cologne, you will not easily find it in the years assigned by Crombach or about that time. But, you will say, supposing that all speak of the same siege, could not this miracle have escaped Trithemius and the others cited above by us? It could indeed, in the strict sense; but, supposing the truth of the matter, it seems to me that this could have happened only with the greatest difficulty; for in the times of Levold of Northof that event was too recent to have been unknown to the Chronographers of that time, and too prodigious to have been passed over in silence.
[27] that prodigy seems fictitious. Nor is there doubt that Trithemius, who was most versed in the affairs of Cologne, and explained at length the often-mentioned deliverance of that city, would have mentioned so great a prodigy with at least one word; whence I not only hold it suspect, but also judge it entirely falsely attached to the said deliverance of the city (unless you duly assign another about that time), and so perhaps devised by the besiegers, that under this specious pretext they might escape the mark of disgrace in raising the siege of the city. Nor does it stand in the way that the sequence of the affair existed carved in the stone of the walls of Cologne in Crombach's age; for it is just as easy for sculptors as for writers (the former for the most part imitate the latter) to depart from historical truth. But as for the fact that the senate of Cologne, as Crombach goes on below, is accustomed, in memory of this heavenly benefit and in thanksgiving, on the very feast of the Holy Moors, the 15th of October, to send as a gift ten very great candles to the basilica of St. Gereon, etc., was such a prodigy done on that account? Although Crombach and others believed so, I think the senate nevertheless did it for no other reason than that this deliverance of the city, as it is narrated by Trithemius and the others cited by us, happened on the night preceding the feast of the Holy Moors, and was most probably ascribed by the citizens to their patronage.
Notes* read qua (for what reason)
* read placandos (to be placated)
* read Gregorium (Gregory).