Ebregisus

ON ST. EBREGISUS, BISHOP OF MAASTRICHT,

ABOUT THE YEAR DCXXV.

SYLLOGE.

Ebregisus, bishop of Maastricht. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

§ Sole. The age of St. Ebregisus; the place of burial; a Life written in the middle of the XI century by Anselm of Liège. It is shown that the body of St. Ebregisus of Maastricht was translated to Cologne by St. Bruno, but not that of St. Evergislus of Cologne. Shrines.

Although very few things are known of St. Ebregisus, bishop of Maastricht, yet they are so interwoven and tangled, [St. Ebregisus, bishop of Maastricht from the year 611 to 625, from Trumonia, where he had been buried,] that no slight effort must be laid out in disentangling them. Further, no one has spoken of him before Heriger of Lobbes, who shortly before the year 980 committed to writing with the greatest diligence and zeal the Deeds of the bishops of Liège Pertz, Monumenta Germaniae, vol. VII, p. 139. In his book, moreover, in chapter XXVIII, which is on St. Domitian and likewise Perpetuus and Ebergisus, he first describes the wretched state of the city of Tongres, then relates that the see of Tongres was transferred to Maastricht, and finally comes to St. Perpetuus and St. Ebregisus; of whom he tells these few things Ibid., p. 176: St. Perpetuus, who presided as the twenty-third, rests at Dinant. Blessed Ebregisus also, succeeding as the twenty-fourth, was entombed at Trutmonia, a villa of the same bishopric. When these had been called by succession to other things, John succeeds as the twenty-fifth … Dagobert, still a youth, was administering the kingdom of Austrasian Francia; Lothar the great, his father, was alone vigorously ruling the monarchy of the four kingdoms. From which last words the time of St. Ebregisus's death is made certain after a fashion. For Dagobert obtained the kingdom of Austrasia in the year 622, and Lothar met his last day in the year 628 Art of Verifying Dates, vol. I, p. 543. Indeed, Ghesquière will have it Acts of the Saints of Belgium, vol. II, p. 424 that this time can be determined more closely, namely because Sigebert of Gembloux at the year 627 makes St. John Agnus contemporary with St. Austregisilus, who departed this life in the year 624; but this argument has less force, since Sigebert places the name of St. Austregisilus three years later. I would not therefore depart from the reckoning of Giles, monk of Orval, who (as the reader will find below, at no. 5) had the Life of St. Ebregisus. And he determines the beginning of his episcopate in the year 611 and the end in the year 625 or the following. But these controversies are less laborious; the water sticks, however, where the translation of the blessed man is treated.

[2] [although the people of Cologne believed that they had received the body of St. Evergislus,] It is plainly certain that St. Bruno, brother of the emperor Otto and archbishop of Cologne, came about the year 959 Compare Acts of the Saints, vol. V of October, pp. 758 and 759 into the parts of the diocese of Liège; it is likewise certain that at that time he took away from there the body of a certain saint, whom some have called St. Evergislus, bishop of Cologne in the full V century, others St. Ebregisus, Ebergisus or Evregisus, our bishop of Maastricht; and the labour lies in settling this dispute. The former opinion is favoured by Ruotger, a cleric of Cologne, who, before two years had yet elapsed after his death, offered to Folcmar, successor of St. Bruno in the see of Cologne, the Life of that blessed prelate. (For St. Bruno departed this life on the 11th day of October of the year 965, and Folcmar on the 18th of July of the year 967 Ibid., vol. IV, p. 252.) For in this Life, such as our Bye Acts of the Saints, vol. V of October, p. 777 and Pertz Monumenta Germaniae, vol. IV, p. 266 brought to light pure of additions, the following is read: As to the translation of Blessed Evergisilus, third archbishop of the same see (of Cologne), what was done by the arrangement of this pious provider is known to very many; whom, laid up in the church of Blessed Cecilia the virgin with hymns and the celebration of divine praise, the religious people so venerates and honours, that you would believe him present to return their daily homage with more ample benefits; where, as I should wish the reader to notice, you by no means read that the body of the holy man was taken up from the town of Tongres; but only that it was by the care of St. Bruno laid up in the church of St. Cecilia; at the same time, however, Ruotger thought that the body taken away was the remains of St. Evergislus, archbishop of Cologne. But the continuator of the Deeds of the bishops of Liège, commonly called Anselm, who in the year 1056 offered his labours to St. Anno II, archbishop of Cologne, contends that he thought this in error. For this man, relying on the testimony of Ida, abbess of St. Cecilia, certainly a woman of great age, as one who had lifted the writer from baptism Monumenta Germaniae, vol. VII, p. 191, and likewise of the inhabitants of Trutmonia, and also on the emptiness of the sepulchre, asserts without doubting that the body taken up by St. Bruno was not that which was kept at Tongres, but that which was kept at Trutmonia; and that that, by the testimony of Heriger, was the body of St. Ebregisus, bishop of Maastricht; and that when the people of Cologne believed (for example Ruotger, the biographer of St. Bruno, whose writing the Liège annalist most certainly handled, and partly copied in book II, chap. 24 Ibid., p. 201) — when, then, they believed that the body of their bishop Evergislus had been brought to them, they were deluded by the likeness of the names; that this one thing could be alleged by them, namely that Evergislus and Ebergisus were one and the same man, who ruled at once the church of Cologne and that of Maastricht; but that this assumption is plainly of no value, since it is clearly established that Evergislus and Ebregisus were two distinct bishops, separated indeed by the space of more than two centuries: so that this whole passage is a distinguished specimen of the critical art. Now hear this little dissertation of the Liège cleric.

[3] [he was translated by St. Bruno to Cologne, as Anselm shows in the middle of the XI century.] He explains, that is, to St. Anno that he had first written an entire history of the bishops of Tongres, Maastricht and Liège; but that afterwards he had preferred to cut away that part which almost a century before Heriger of Lobbes had completed, and, that having been torn from his book, to substitute the narrative of Heriger himself. Since, he says Ibid., p. 162, that upper (part, written by Heriger) has arranged the deeds of the same pontiffs from the first to the twenty-seventh, that is from St. Maternus to St. Remaclus, we too, beheading our work, which we had written at the entreaty of the lady Ida, abbess (of St. Cecilia of Cologne), lest by going over the same things we should cause disgust to the reader, have begun from Blessed Theodard, and have followed the order of the bishops up to the lord Wazo, who is established to be the fifty-second; putting down nothing except what we have either read, or learned from the certain relation of faithful persons, or certainly ourselves being present have seen and heard. For indeed it is not fitting that her mother, namely holy Cologne, should be unaware how many and what sort of rulers humble Liège has had; of whom if she shall learn that any have pleased God, the careful mother will have thence the means of rejoicing the more abundantly. For it is the part of mothers to reckon the increase of their daughters as their own. And let her also know that, besides the thousands of white-robed martyrs, she preserves the ashes of one of our patrons, namely Blessed Ebergisus; who, buried in Trutmonia, a villa of our bishopric, as these same Deeds (of Heriger) testify, both so memorable an abbess (Ida) and the natives of the aforesaid Trutmonia relate were translated from there (namely from Trutmonia) by Bruno, archbishop and likewise, as they say, duke, into the monastery of St. Cecilia; where today his empty sepulchre is held in the greatest honour. But as to your people (namely Ruotger, the biographer of St. Bruno) calling him Evergislus, we judge that from some bishop of this name, whose mausoleum (or place of burial) is unknown, this was attributed to this our Ebergisus because of the consonance of the name, although some contend that this same man was at one time both of Cologne and ours, and assert that he, with Blessed Severinus, his predecessor (as they add), was a hearer of the angelic voices chanting at the passing of Blessed Martin. If this were so, the same man who was fourth for the people of Cologne would have been twenty-fourth for us; but that this is altogether impossible is clearly gathered from the reckoning of the times. For at the passing of Blessed Martin it was the second year of Arcadius and Honorius, which is the four hundred and first from the Lord's Incarnation. From which two hundred and fifty-two years are counted up to King Dagobert, about whose times this our Ebergisus presided over the see of Maastricht. It remains then that they should say either that their Evergislus lived after the passing of St. Martin through those same 252 years up to Dagobert, so that it may seem credible that the same man could have been at one time your bishop and ours — which exceeds belief; or let them believe with us that they are in every way different, both because from the time of the flood no one has lived 200 years *, and because we read that between Blessed Servatius our bishop, who was contemporary with Blessed Severinus, and this Ebergisus, thirteen bishops presided over us. Neither did the people of Cologne say or believe; but they composed a history of the translation, in which the holy prelate, translated by St. Bruno into St. Cecilia, is said to have been brought there, not from Trutmonia, but from Tongres; but before I explain these things another Liège cleric must be heard.

[4] His Life also, which Abbess Ida had asked of him, To book II of the Deeds of the bishops of Liège, which we have said was offered in the year 1056 to St. Anno II with the annals of Heriger, is prefixed the proem of an anonymous cleric of Liège; who is established to have been contemporary with Anselm, the writer of that book, if only from the fact that this proem is found in a codex of the XI century Compare Ibid., pp. 157 and 191. Now this man, when he had said of which pontiffs of the church of Tongres, Maastricht and Liège the deeds in the first book, or in the annals of Heriger,

were contained, proceeds thus Ibid., p. 191: Thereafter what follows has by order of the priors of this place (Liège) in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1056 been annexed to this work from the little book of another small work, which a certain one of the canons of St. Lambert, Anselm by name, composed at the admonition of Ida, the venerable abbess who ruled the monastery of St. Cecilia the virgin at Cologne; the cause of which labour undertaken, as he himself testifies, was this. There rests in the same monastery of the holy virgin the body of Blessed Ebergisus, who presided as the twenty-fourth over the church of Tongres; which they affirm was translated there by Archbishop Bruno, who is said to have been a duke, from Trutmonia, a villa of the bishopric of Liège, where his sepulchre is still seen. Since nothing was held in that place concerning his life, the same venerable Abbess Ida approached the aforesaid canon of the church of Liège, with very modest familiarity, as one who as a spiritual mother had received him from the sacred font, that, if he wrote up anything in the church of Liège concerning that same saint, he should not delay to send it to her. Many things also about Wazo, bishop of Liège, were asked of the canon of St. Lambert by Ida, and he fulfilled that request so abundantly that he recorded not only the deeds of St. Ebregisus and above all of Wazo, but also those of all the predecessors of both. The Life of St. Ebregisus was contained in the earlier part; but we have already seen that he cut this away and substituted the annals of Heriger for it.

[5] [Anselm wrote it, as is established from Giles of Orval. Rosweyde had knowledge of it.] That Anselm wrote the Life of most blessed Ebregisus, therefore, is plainly not to be doubted. What we have just reported can be accepted in place of testimony; but what we shall give from Giles of Orval will perhaps seem to some firmer and certainly more open. We shall give the entire passage, as far as it concerns St. Ebregisus: After St. Perpetuus, St. Ebregisus is substituted as the twenty-fourth bishop to the church of Maastricht about the year of the Lord six hundred and eleven; who presided more than fourteen years … This Blessed Ebregisus was once sprung in the city of Tongres from a most noble family, and handed over by his parents to the study of letters in the same city, by the gift of divine grace he in a short time equalled the highest doctors in the Sacred Scriptures. At which time also, namely about the six hundred and twelfth year from the Incarnation of the Lord, King Lothar committed his son Dagobert to be brought up by the prince Pepin … So under the aforesaid princes, as we have said above, Blessed Ebregisus ruled the church of Maastricht, a man of great sanctity and great authority: whose deeds let him who desires to know them more fully read over entirely in his Life, full of virtues, and the miracles which the Lord deigned to work through him; which we do not doubt is held in several places. Behold then an open testimony that in the middle of the XIII century there existed a Life of St. Ebregisus; which is sufficiently manifest, from what I reported a little above from the proem of the same book II, to have been written by Anselm, author of book II of the Deeds of the bishops of Liège. I therefore searched diligently, but in vain, for where this Life might lie hidden. But lest anyone should object that I am suffering myself to be imposed on by Giles; that no Life of St. Ebregisus was ever held anywhere; and so that these things were very carelessly put forth by Giles: I shall think it enough to have pointed out that Rosweyde, at the beginning of the XVII century, when he first undertook the Acts of the Saints, had it in his hands, or certainly notice of it was sent to him. For in the Fasti of the Saints whose Lives were preserved in manuscript in Belgian libraries, he lists at p. 26 the name of St. Ebregisus, bishop of Maastricht, in these words: Ebergisus, bishop of Maastricht, otherwise Evergislus, 28 March. His translation 24 October. But let us return to Giles, and exhibit in this place also what he adds straightway.

[6] Giles also had a history of the translation, Concerning the place, however, he says, where he was buried, Anselm testifies in the Deeds of the pontiffs of Tongres, written out for St. Anno, archbishop of Cologne, that the same St. Ebregisus, bishop of Maastricht, was buried at Trumonia, a villa of the diocese of Cologne *, where he lay entombed for almost three hundred years or more, up to the times of Bruno, archbishop of Cologne, who was the brother of the great and first Otto, emperor of the Romans. This venerable archbishop and duke Bruno, admonished by divine revelation, Blessed Ebregisus appearing to him, but the archbishop hesitating over this, appeared again a second and a third time in dreams, saying that he should carry his body away from the aforesaid place. So the same Archbishop Bruno, having been made certain of the vision, translated the body of the same Blessed Ebregisus from Trumonia to Cologne, as the natives of that Trumonia testify, and placed it with honour and reverence in the church of St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr, in a shrine decently adorned with gold and silver, where it happily shines with many and great miracles, to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[7] [the memory of which was celebrated on the 28th day of March, different from the history of the translation of St. Evergislus which is still circulated.] But I hear Chapeauville Deeds of the pontiffs of Tongres, etc., p. 67 saying: Giles corrected himself, as one who wrote the following words in the margin of his book: The feast of this Blessed Ebregisus is kept on the fifth of the nones (rather of the kalends) of April, and by some on the ninth of the kalends of November. On which day likewise is kept the deposition of St. Evergislus, deacon and successor of St. Severinus of Cologne; and then follows a brief Life of him and a history of the translation; which however he broke off in the middle, namely when he saw that what followed conflicted with what he had reported of the translation of St. Ebregisus. This one thing however we can gather from this marginal notation of Giles, that in his age there were already circulated two histories of that translation, one which concerned St. Ebregisus and had perhaps Anselm of Liège as author, the other which had been composed for the honour of St. Evergislus by a cleric of Cologne, and which the reader will find above at the end of the Acts of St. Evergislus. Both had this in common, that the translation was said to have taken place on the V of the kalends of April or the 28th day of March; whence our predecessors found noted at this day in their manuscript Florarium the translation of St. Evergislus, bishop of Cologne; which in the Lübeck-Cologne auctaria and that of Molanus to the Martyrology of Usuard is likewise announced at this day, as made from the city of Tongres to the church of St. Cecilia the virgin; but those same predecessors of ours also found at the same day, in that manuscript Florarium of theirs and moreover in the Calendar of Liège, the feast Acts of the Saints, vol. III of March, p. 711, or memory of the translation, of Blessed Ebregisus, XXIV bishop of Maastricht, carried out from the villa of Trutmonia to Cologne. For the rest, the two histories of the translation disagreed with each other. For Giles read, in the history which we have judged is to be attributed to Anselm, four warnings of the hesitating St. Bruno made by St. Ebregisus appearing in dreams; while only one apparition of St. Evergislus and almost no hesitation of St. Bruno appears in the other

[8] Both accounts are not contemporary and deserve little credit, For the rest, this latter narrative was most certainly written after the middle of the XI century; for since it is read in it that the body of St. Evergislus was translated to Cologne not from Trutmonia, but from Tongres, and on the contrary Ida, abbess of St. Cecilia, said at that same time that the body which was kept in her church was brought to her nunnery not from Tongres, but from Trutmonia, it is sufficiently plain that that history was not yet in use at that time; moreover, the whole critical discussion of Anselm would have rested on no foundation, since the people of Cologne, who preferred to venerate their own bishop rather than a stranger's bishop, could have answered that it is read in the history of the translation that the saint whom they venerated had been carried to them from Tongres and had nothing in common with the saint of Trutmonia. But in very truth let no one suppose that I place much trust in the visions which are related in one or other narrative, whether St. Bruno said that he was admonished by them, or whether they were invented afterwards. For if the latter is said, the reason for mistrust is manifest: if the former, I indeed shall not accuse St. Bruno of a lie; but I shall observe that he was most zealous in acquiring relics, so that he is accused by some, even the best of Catholics, of by no means abstaining, since in that age that kind of pious theft did not seem sinful even to the holiest men; then that in fact the removal of the body of St. Ebregisus or Evergislus had plainly the appearance of a theft, and that it is therefore not credible that it was urged on the blessed man by heavenly visions; but that since he cherished in his mind the desire of obtaining these relics, it was natural that he should dream of them, and that dreams were easily held for visions; so that nothing stands in the way of his having said in the best faith that the holy man had appeared to him.

[9] [It is not known what place Trutmonia was, from which the body of St. Ebergisus was translated to Cologne.] In all these things, then, provided we are willing to stand by the ancient monuments, there seems to be no room for doubt. But what is difficult, and left untouched by us so far, St. Bruno is related to have carried away the body of St. Ebregisus to Cologne from Trutmonia or Trumonia, a villa of the bishopric of Liège. I have searched carefully in the topographical lexicons of Belgium, in which not only parishes but even villages are designated; likewise in the old Polyptych, or index of benefices of the former diocese of Liège, which the Rev. Mr. De Ridder, vicar of the parish of SS. John and Stephen of Brussels and most versed in the topography of that same diocese, communicated to me; and likewise in the writings of the distinguished Mr. Grandgagnage on the old names of places of the diocese of Liège. Nor did I think it enough to weigh the names which came closer to Trutmonia or Trumonia, but also those called Episcopivilla, Episcopivillare or by other similar words; but I found nothing at all to the point. I also went to the charters and diplomas in which the rights and possessions of the church of Liège are listed, chiefly those of Pope Adrian IV and the emperor Frederick I, who, confirming its goods to that church in the year 1155, listed the chief ones Miraeus, Supplement to the Diplomas, vol. II, pp. 825 and 826; but in these too there is nothing of Trutmonia. Whatever other books on the diocese of Liège we have in great number, I employed with what diligence I could; but this care too was vain. Foulon indeed History of Liège, vol. I, p. 80 suggests that it is the parish of Trognie, two leagues distant to the south from Landen; but I have learned from the parish priest's letter that it is not so, but that this parish has its name from St. Trudo. In a manuscript chronicle of the bishops of Liège, which ends in the year 1651 and is kept in our museum, Tiermoingne is written; but I find nothing similar anywhere on the maps or in the topographical books of Liège. There does indeed exist a place, once called Trutmonia, Trotimania, Druthmania, Trutmania, Tremonia, etc.; but it is situated far beyond the Rhine; it was a royal palace, and is now called Dortmund; and what is chief, in the century

VI it seems not yet to have existed, or at least not yet to have had that name; for it was given to it by a certain Trutmann, in the time (unless I am mistaken) of Charlemagne [Compare the Chronicle of Göttweig, p. 515; History of Westphalia, p. 539; Binterim and Mooren, Die alte und neue Erzdiözese Köln, pp. 298 and following]. It is now hidden, therefore, what place was once called Trutmonia in the diocese of Liège; and since in the year 1185 almost all the diplomas of St. Lambert were destroyed by fire [Note on a Diploma of Louis the Pious, in Bulletins of the Royal Academy of Belgium, vol. XIX, part I, p. 454], there is small hope of ever coming to knowledge of it. For the rest, nothing can be concluded from our present ignorance against the testimonies of Heriger and the authors of the annals of Liège: for so many other places have laid aside their former names and obtained new ones, without its always being possible to find which places were designated by the old names.

[10] [The body of St. Ebergisus was preserved under the name of St. Evergislus in three shrines up to the beginning of the present century.] To conclude these things, I do not doubt that the people of Cologne received the body of St. Ebregisus, and by no means that of St. Evergislus: for the opinion of Chapeauville Deeds of the bishops of Tongres, etc., p. 68 and others needs no confutation, namely that the bodies of both perhaps were carried to Cologne; for that opinion openly conflicts with what we reported from Anselm in number 3. But although it was evident and manifest that the bones translated from Trutmonia could not be those of St. Evergislus, bishop of Cologne, yet since that judgment had once prevailed among the common people of Cologne, it could never be overthrown thereafter, so that the cult of the relics of St. Ebregisus persisted thenceforth in the church of St. Cecilia under the name of St. Evergislus: whence it comes about that we are truly placed at a fork, not knowing to which of the two that cult is to be referred. Since however almost this whole sylloge is about the body of St. Ebregisus, it seems best that we make clear in this place the remaining fortunes of this pious pledge. Giles of Orval, as we have seen, affirms that the body of the holy man was placed by St. Bruno in a shrine decently adorned with gold and silver; but in the X century shrines of that kind were very rare, since at that time the relics of the saints were still commonly preserved in tombs of stone or wood. And indeed, as Gelenius is witness The Admirable Greatness of Cologne, book III, syntagma XI, p. 361, various open sarcophagi of the saints were preserved in the church of St. Cecilia. So after the relics of St. Ebregisus had lain for some time in a wooden or stone coffin, they were laid up in a silver tomb or shrine, or, as Winheim relates Sacrarium Agrippinae, p. 118, in a tomb overlaid with silver plates. But neither did this seem sufficiently magnificent to the piety of the people of Cologne. They determined therefore to give it to the body of St. Paulinus, and to translate the relics of St. Ebregisus into a new and more precious one, which Winheim relates was of gilded silver Ibid., in the page cited. Hear Gelenius on all these things The Admirable Greatness of Cologne, p. 359: The history of the life and putative translation of St. Evergislus is expressed in little images and words on the silver reliquary in which St. Paulinus is now stored up, after a new and more elegant one was fabricated for St. Evergislus: and these verses were written beside the images on the older tomb:

A heavenly voice reveals to these as they keep watch, that Martin After the course of life ascends on high in the ether. Him the sword slays in hope of gain, but without gain. Him slain these contemporaries in fraud veil with light foliage. The prelate of Agrippina, Bruno, sacred sword, Seeks the city under Tungrian right after the manner of his forebears: In dreams Christ's champion manifests himself to him. To St. Cecilia Bruno, fountain of wisdom, gives this man. A celebrated procession meets him with frequent praises. The clergy bury the saint, giving Tongres lamentation for its father.

[11] No documents seem to exist at Cologne older than the year 1498; What followed then learn from the commentary of the Rev. Mr. J. Kessel, chaplain in the church of St. Alban at Cologne, whose diligence and accuracy I cannot but heap with praises. Up to the year 1498, he says, I am uncertain about the elevation or uncovering of the relics of this saint. For in this year, in which, on the initiative of the venerable regular abbess the lady Elisabeth de Reven, the casket or tomb of St. Evergislus was unlocked, no document is recorded to have been found handing down to posterity according to custom the memory of any earlier elevation or uncovering of the same. Nevertheless I judge that some elevation or uncovering of the said relics took place in previous centuries appears from the fact that the said casket, in which the relics of St. Evergislus are enclosed to this day and which was renewed in the year 1837 by the pastor and churchwardens of the parish church of St. Peter, in my opinion and that of the Rev. Mr. Bock, a most skilled judge in this matter, seems to be reckoned older than the end of the fifteenth century.

[12] in which, on account of certain rumours, the reliquary casket was opened. The memory of the uncovering of the relics of St. Evergislus made in the year 1498 is preserved and set out by this parchment sheet. “That all suspicion might cease and the devotion of the people might be the more fervent, the venerable lady Elisabeth de Reven, first regular abbess after the translation of this once secular church into a regular monastery of the order of St. Augustine, by the counsel and consent both of her chapter and of her convent, caused this casket to be opened and closed again, and she found the sacred relics of St. Evergislus, glorious martyr and archbishop of Cologne, venerably stored up and arranged, which she left as she found them. In the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and ninety-eight, on the 15th day of the month of August; Alexander the sixth being pope, Maximilian king of the Romans and Hermann archbishop of Cologne reigning; John Kirchhoff, apostolic protonotary, provost, and archdeacon of Emmerich, and Everard de Arbore, canons, Nicholas de Lennich, confessor, Rutger Hofsmyt of Dorsten and Matthias Vowinckel, vicars of the aforesaid monastery, being present, seeing and hearing.”

[13] [Indulgences granted by Urban VIII. When in the year 1802 the church of St. Cecilia was suppressed, the casket, deprived of its silver plates, was put away over the vault of the church of St. Peter;] Of documents concerning indulgences given to increase the festivities I have found only one, in which Pope Urban VIII declares to all the faithful of Christ duly keeping the feast days of SS. Augustine, Maternus, Evergislus and Leonard, being well contrite and confessed, that seven years and as many forty-day periods of the penances enjoined on them are to be relaxed. After the suppression of the college of St. Cecilia, carried out by order of the French government fifty-eight years ago, the church itself was assigned to what is called the citizens' hospital of Cologne; and the silver casket of St. Evergislus, which is said to have been very beautiful and adorned with many precious gems and stones, was so stripped of all its grace and adornment that only the narrow coffin was left. Lest it, together with the sacred relics, should be utterly lost in that turbulent time, it was secretly carried away by the parish priest and certain parishioners of the church of St. Peter and deposited in that same parish church of theirs, which lies close by, to be reserved for happier days. Here it stood for a long time without any regard and reverence over the vault of the church, withdrawn from the sight and veneration of the faithful.

[14] from here in the year 1829 relics were extracted, to be sent to Rome. In the year 1829 the most holy Pope Pius VIII commanded the Illustrious Lord Mercy d'Argenteau, his nuncio at Munich and archbishop of Tyre, in order to complete, as it is said, the number of relics preserved at Rome, to send to Rome a certain particle of the bones of St. Evergislus, of which it was still altogether lacking, taken from his casket. And so on the 12th day of the month of August of the same year, Ferdinand Augustus, archbishop of Cologne and count of Spiegel zum Desenberg and Canstein, ordered Joseph Heinrich Filz, doctor of theology and dean of this city, as commissary in spiritual matters, Wilhelm Schmitz, presbyter of the order of the Discalced and apostolic protonotary, assisting, the seals of the inner casket having been broken after they had been found and acknowledged inviolate, to take the requested particle from the casket and to send it to the Munich nunciature to be transmitted to Rome. When this had been done, the casket was again closed, no one promoting its renewal. From the protocol written about this business, which is still preserved in the parish church of St. Peter, it is plain that the parchment sheet transcribed above word for word was then found.

[15] [In the year 1837 the casket is renewed and in the following year solemnly exposed.] Meanwhile the casket, stripped of all adornment, lay in disgrace until the year 1837, when Clement Augustus, archbishop of Cologne, of happy memory, having been informed of its wretched condition through Baron F. E. de Mering, a man most deserving for his elucidation of the history of Cologne, gave charge to the pastor and ecclesiastical senate of the parish of St. Peter to renew it duly and according to its dignity. They, entrusting this work to the judgment of a certain citizen of Cologne versed in this art, did not think that they ought to spare expense. The renewal cost 1150 thalers, 27 Prussian groschen. Around the casket, which over a bronze colour has been overlaid with gold, there are seen fourteen statues enclosed in little niches of ancient workmanship, which represent the twelve holy apostles and Severinus and Evergislus, bishops of Cologne. It has these inscriptions: THE CASKET OF THE RELICS OF ST. EVERGISLUS, FROM THE CHURCH OF ST. CECILIA, THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS HAVING BEEN SUPPRESSED BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT, WAS TRANSLATED TO THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. PETER MDCCCII BY THE PASTOR AND CHURCHWARDENS OF ST. PETER: RENEWED AND RESTORED TO A FITTING PLACE MDCCCXXXVII, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE MOST REVEREND ARCHBISHOP OF COLOGNE CLEMENT AUGUSTUS, BARON DROSTE OF VISCHERING. Already in the year 1837 the said archbishop wished to institute the elevation of the aforesaid relics in a most festive manner; for which reason Pope Gregory XVI, of happy memory, at his intercession on the 8th day of August, granted plenary indulgences to all the faithful of Christ truly contrite and confessed, if they should be present at this festivity. But it was necessary to postpone it beyond a year, namely to the 8th day of the month of October of the year 1838, on which it was celebrated as in the solemnity of a jubilee through the whole city of Cologne. The renewed casket, when with several clerics assisting it had received the sacred bones through the above-mentioned dean, was closed by the same craftsman with three screws, inserted through the corners of the upper triangle, and decorated at the top with a lily, and at the other corners with other flowers.

[16] The form of the old and of the new casket. Of an older casket than that just described, the archive or record-room of the parish church of St. Peter has nothing, and I am persuaded that this is the original, [made however after another, older one was destined to hold the bones of St. Paulinus]. I judge this to be proved both by that parchment sheet mentioned, than which neither earlier nor later has any document on the elevation or uncovering of the aforesaid relics been found in the casket, and also and most of all from the structure of the work itself, which seems to be ascribed to the fourteenth century, by comparison with other tombs of this kind in this city. Truly, alas! the renovation of the casket as it now stands

aforesaid much of both art and value has been taken away, the craftsman indulging overmuch the modern principles of this art. Yet from the broken lines of Gothic art which it still shows, the piled-up clothing of the sculpted figures, and also the wood gilded to the appearance of copper or other metal, it seems to me sufficiently plain that it was worked in that age by some skilled craftsman.

[17] [The fortunes of the other, older one and of the relics of St. Paulinus, which were enclosed in it.] The bones of St. Paulinus the martyr likewise still exist in the parish church of St. Peter, but alas! withdrawn from the sight and veneration of the faithful and enclosed in a cheap tomb in a cupboard of the same church. The Rev. Mr. Hutmacher, who is now pastor of this church, spared neither zeal nor effort that they might be duly elevated according to their dignity; but since authentic documents proving their genuineness are lacking, he was ordered by the reverend vicar general to desist from this matter for the time being. For the rest, the tomb in which the sacred bones are now enclosed presents so wretched an appearance that it has preserved not even one sign of any earlier adornment, nor has anything from which it is possible to judge with certainty of its ancient character and condition. These are the only things which I have to communicate to you. Neither from the record-room of the parish church of St. Peter nor from the other archives of this city, as far as I know, can anything be drawn out on this matter. For the rest, chiefly what concerns the church of St. Cecilia, see above in the Annotations to the Passion of St. Evergislus.

[18] The cult of St. Ebregisus has almost ceased. Above at no. 7 I have already said that the feast of St. Ebregisus was formerly kept on the 28th day of March and the 24th of October. His memory is also found in the General Catalogue of the saints of Ferrari at the IV of the nones of April and at the III of the nones of April, that is at the 2nd and 3rd day of April; but the error arose from this, that in Chapeauville one reads V of the nones in place of V of the kalends of April; and there never existed a day V of the nones of April. At the 15th day of the same month Henschenius found in the Greven manuscript auctaria of Usuard a memory celebrated of St. Ebergisus, bishop in Upper Maastricht and confessor. But now this one trace of the cult of St. Ebregisus survives, that all the bishops who had their see at Maastricht continue to be called saints. It also contributes something to his cult that his name is read with the title of saint in the Flowers of the Church of Liège of Fisen Page 565, in the History of Liège of Foulon Vol. I, pp. 80 and 181, and in other annals of the church of Liège and catalogues of its bishops.

[19] [The name of St. Ebregisus, whose etymology is inquired into, is different from the name of St. Evergislus.] By way of a crowning touch, since so much has been said of the affinity of the names Evergislus and Ebergisus, Evergisus or Ebregisus, I shall add some few things on this matter. That both names have a common part, namely Ever or Eber, everyone sees; and Adelung in his German Glossary, under Eberhard, will teach you that by this a boar is signified. But gislus in Evergislus and gisus in Ebregisus do not have the same sense; and so Ebergisus and Evergislus are two different names. For gislus, the Latin form of the Teutonic word geisil, signifies a surety and a guest; in gisus the difficulty is greater. First of all note that this word was most certainly used in forming names of Germanic stock, as distinct from gislus. For in the very old Saint Gall Catalogue of the proper names by which the Alamanni were once called [Goldast, Writers of Alamannic Affairs, vol. II, part I, pp. 95 and following, third edition], the following occur: Adalgis or Oadalgis; Ceizo, Ceizzo, Giso, Gizo, or Kezo; Kezeman; Liutgis or Liutkis; Otgis; Ratgis or Ratkis; Richkis; Theotgis or Theotkis; Unceiz; Vuofceiz; Vuolfgis. I omit the names ending in Goz, Coz and Koz, although they too seem to belong here. And in the Catalogue of masculine proper names in Alamannia of Chur and of Burgundy Ibid., pp. 112 and following these also come: Adalchix; Arigisus; Fredegisus, Fredegysus or Fretgisus; Gisbehardus; Gisemarius; Gisemundus; Gisepertus; Giso; Gisulfus; Ratgisus or Rotgisus; Remegisus; Vuinigisus. Now there is no doubt that Ceizo, Gizo, Kezo or more softly Giso is the same as the present-day German word Geitz; whose origin, says Adelung at this very word, is still obscure; but its signification seems to be growth and desire. But beware of wishing to fuse some sense out of Eber and Geitz: these words are by custom placed next to one another not for any signification, but for mere distinction; just as cognomina and agnomina were joined with nomina by the Romans, and by us family names likewise with given names.

* supply legitur

* read Leodiensis.