Albinus or Witta and Companions

ON SS. ALBINUS OR WITTA AND COMPANIONS: ALBINUS OR WITTA AND MEGINGAUD, BISHOPS OF BÜRABERG, AND HUMBERT, PRIOR OF FRITZLAR,

IN THE YEAR DCCLXXXVI AND AFTERWARDS

A HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.

Albinus, confessor and bishop, at Büraberg in Hesse. (S.)

Megingaud, confessor and bishop, at Büraberg in Hesse. (S.)

Humbert, confessor, not a bishop, at Fritzlar. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

§ I. The cult of St. Albinus, his double name, his native country and his arrival in Germany.

Wion in book III of the Lignum vitæ, which is as it were a Benedictine martyrology, composed with singular care and much erudition, The name of St. Albinus, inscribed in more recent fasti, on this day: "At Fritzlar," he says, "of St. Albuin, bishop and confessor, who by word and example brought many peoples to the fold of Christ." A little more briefly Ferrari in the General Catalogue of the saints makes the memory of the same on the present day, namely in these words: "At Burbach in Thuringia, of St. Albuin, first bishop of Fritzlar"; Hugues Ménard in the Benedictine Martyrology in these others: "At Fritzlar, of St. Albuin, bishop and confessor"; which Bucelin almost copied, in the Benedictine Menology, saying: "At Fritzlar, of St. Albuin, bishop and confessor"; and likewise other Benedictine menologists. But since all those are more recent, and the feast of St. Albinus occurs in no liturgical books that we have, and his feast is plainly omitted in the copious auctaria of Sollier's Usuard, my colleague, who illustrated the acts of St. Lullus at the 16th day of October, cautiously wrote that the cult of St. Albuin seemed to him very doubtful, or at least confined within the narrowest limits; but that this question would be further examined at the 26th day of October Acta SS., vol. VII of October, p. 1080. And indeed I should not think that the divine office is still celebrated anywhere in honour of St. Albinus; nor that his veneration was once very widely spread. Nevertheless testimonies survive by which it becomes clear that the blessed man was publicly venerated a hundred years before the decrees of Urban. And if we had the old books of Fritzlar and above all of Hersfeld (for his bones rested at Hersfeld), I do not doubt but that it could be demonstrated from them that the holy prelate obtained the honours of the heavenly citizens almost a thousand years ago. But receive those testimonies.

[2] [in more ancient books also it has found a place; as is established from the anonymous Mainz writer and Trithemius:] In the calendar of the saints of the Order of our Holy Father Benedict, which Ferdinand de Valey, who professed the Cistercian laws in the monastery of St. Saviour at Antwerp in the year 1527, wrote, at the 26th day of October is celebrated "the feast of St. Albwin, bishop at Burbach (which is not now a bishopric), formerly a monk in Ireland." Our predecessors then had a Breviary or other book of this kind, which I find called Irish by them, where also the festivity of St. Albuin was indicated at the present day. Then in a manuscript book on the affairs of Mainz, which Serarius here and there adduces, these things were read [In Serarius, Moguntiacarum rerum book III, note XXIX, Johannis edition, vol. I, pp. 312 and 313.]: "In the town of Buraburch near Fritzlar, for the episcopal see after his departure, St. Boniface ordains as bishop Albuin, his Irish disciple, a monk of the monastery of the city or of Fritzlar; WHOSE FEAST IS KEPT ON THE VII OF THE KALENDS OF NOVEMBER." A good witness too, and indeed one who went before the others, is Johannes Trithemius, who spent a great part of his life in the Sponheim hermitage of the diocese of Mainz, and in the year 1506

was made abbot in the monastery of St. James in the suburb of Würzburg. For in book III of On the Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, chapter CCLXVII, he reports these things of St. Albuin the bishop Jo. Trithemius, Opera pia et spiritualia, Busæus edition, p. 105.: "Albuin, a monk in Ireland, a man of holy conversation, burning with love of pilgrimage, left his sweet native soil; and coming into Germany, he won many peoples for Christ by his preaching: then, that he might bear ampler fruit of preaching, he was ordained by the authority of the Roman pontiff bishop of Fritzlar in the town of Burbach. But the bishopric there has long ceased. HIS FEAST IS KEPT ON THE SEVENTH OF THE KALENDS OF NOVEMBER." There is therefore assuredly no doubt that at the opening of the XVI century in some churches or monasteries of the diocese of Mainz, certainly at Fritzlar and Hersfeld, the festivity of St. Albinus was kept on the 26th day of October. The anonymous writer of Serarius is a witness, Trithemius is a witness: the latter of whom in the prologue of the third book protests that he will discourse of saints and canonized persons, and not merely of pious men and men of venerable memory; and that he will not make mention of all the saints of his order, but has scarcely marked a few out of many, of whom he had certain knowledge at hand Jo. Trithemius, Opera pia et spiritualia, Busæus edition, p 63.; and since he had his knowledge from calendars and from ecclesiastical offices, he therefore here and there indicates on what day the feast of the saints was kept.

[3] the latter of whom wrongly makes him an Irishman by nation and a monk of Hy. But that we may not divide the testimonies of Trithemius on St. Albinus, let us call up another from the fourth book, in which are reviewed the Roman pontiffs, cardinals and bishops who once professed the Benedictine rule. Chapter CXC, then, inscribed "Of Albuin, bishop of Fritzlar," runs thus Ibid., p. 141.: "Albuin, a monk of the island of Hy, going out from Ireland, came into Thuringia for the sake of preaching; where, when by his most sweet preaching he had converted many of the Gentiles to Christ, he was ordained bishop of Fritzlar by the supreme pontiff; where he shone forth renowned for many virtues and signs. But the bishopric of that nation has long ceased." Because he is there called a monk of Hy, Dempster drew him to the British Scots and in the Scottish Menology made his memory at the 15th day of March. Colgan saw that there was an error in the day, but he would not have the first volume of the Acts of the saints of Ireland come to light without having claimed the same man for the Irish Scots: wherefore he too celebrated his memory at the 15th day of March Acta SS. Hiberniæ, vol. I, p. 610.. Ferrari, led astray by Dempster, announced at the same 15th day of March on the island of Huy the feast of St. Albuin, abbot, as though the most holy man had died on the island of Hy, after holding the abbatial staff there. Wion also in the notes to the feasts of the present day Lignum vitæ, part II, p. 531., Ussher in the preface to the Sylloge of Irish Letters In Lanigan, Eccles. history of Ireland, vol. III, p. 180., Ware and Harris in the Bibliotheca hibernica Writers, under Albuin, in Lanigan, loc. cit. and John Lanigan himself Eccles. hist. of Ireland, vol. III, p. 178. have claimed St. Albinus for the Irish.

[4] St. Albinus was an Anglo-Saxon, as the original name of Witta But the Irish or Scottish origin of St. Albinus seems plainly fabulous, as do the sojourn ascribed to him among the Scots or Irish on the island of Hy and the discharge of the abbatial office. For when, namely, at Regensburg, Würzburg and other neighbouring places twelve monasteries, of which nine are still known [Die Kongregation der Schottenklöster in Deuthschland, im Zeitschrift für Christliche Archaologie und Kunst. Leipzig, 1856, and rendered into English by the celebrated W. Reeves, The Irish monasteries in Germany, Ulster Journal of Archæology.], had been raised by Scottish or Irish monks and certainly for their sake, many things that had been accomplished by the English and Saxons gradually began to be ascribed to the Irish and Scots. What then? St. Boniface himself, who, as his original name Winfrid, the biographers and contemporary historians, and even his letters bear witness [Seiters, Bonifacius der Apostel der Deutschen, p. 26. Cf. Acta SS., vol. I of June, p. 454.], was an Englishman or Saxon by nation, is said by Marianus Scotus Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ, vol. V, p. 545. to be a Scot or Irishman, and is also called by Trithemius in one place [De viris illustribus ord. S. Benedicti, book II, chapter 24, Busæus edition, p. 35.] a Scot by nation, elsewhere Ibid., book III, chapter 171, p. 93. however born in Britain of England. Nor was the lot of St. Lullus different, likewise an Anglo-Saxon Cf. Acta SS., vol. VII, p. 1053.. One must therefore beware of the ancient zeal of the Scots and Irish, who not only dispute among themselves about many saints, whether they were Scots or Irish, but also claim for themselves others who were neither Scots nor Irish. Now that St. Albinus was an Englishman or Saxon, his native name itself makes manifest: for he was called Witta, which name was also that of the grandfather of Hengist and Horsa Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Thorpe edition, vol. I, p. 21. and which in Germany (as is established from Williram In Adelung, Worterbuch, under Weiss.) was pronounced Wiz; now Weiss in Germany, in Belgium Wit, in England White. In the ancient histories, therefore, St. Albinus appears with various forms of the same name: he is called Witta by Pope Zachary, Witta and Wittanus by Othlo, and Wizo by the nun of Heidenheim, of the Anglo-Saxon nation. Eckhart contends that this name is the same as Wigbert Francia Orientalis, vol. I, p. 357., determining that Witta was contracted from Wigbert. But it is not so. For the Germans and other kindred peoples did not properly contract names; but, since most of these consisted of two words placed side by side, they were rather often content to utter one, especially the first. Thus St. Leob-gyta, abbess of Bischofsheim and the countrywoman and companion of St. Boniface, is frequently called Lioba or Leoba; Cuon-rad is called Cuono, Brune-child Bruna, Gundi-char Gunzo, etc. But I have already often noted this, even in this volume Acta SS., vol. X of October, p. 823; vol. XI of October, p. 681.. But Witta and Wig are neither the same word nor do they mean the same; since by the former word white, by the latter war is indicated. There was no reason, therefore, why Eckhart on the occasion of St. Witta or Albinus should so diligently distinguish the Wigberts from one another Francia Orientalis, vol. I, pp. 357 and 358.. However that may be, as St. Winfrid took the Latin name of Boniface, St. Willibrord that of Clement and Bl. Alcuin that of Flaccus Albinus (I use the most celebrated examples), so St. Witta wished to be called Albinus, the name being turned from Anglo-Saxon into Latin. This name of Albinus they afterwards twisted into Albuin or Albwin, that it might put on a German form [Cf. Beyer, Urkundenbuch der mittelrheinischen Territorien, vol. I, Personen Register, under Albuinus, Albewin, p. 737.]; and indeed not by a single example: for Albinus, the adopted name of Alcuin, is found changed into Albuin Cf. Serarius and Joannis, Res Moguntiacæ, vol. I, p. 396., and Albinus, bishop of Merseburg, was also called Albuin Acta SS., vol. III of October, p. 173.; likewise St. Albinus or Albuin, bishop of Brixen Ibid., vol. I of February, p. 712.; however that may be, Witta, Wizo, etc. is an Anglo-Saxon word, by no means Irish or Scottish; it could be turned into Albus or Albinus: which the Welsh and Armorican Britons signify by the word Can Cf. de Courson, Hist. des peuples bretons, vol. I, p. 432., and the Scots and Irish by Geal [O'Brien, Focaloir Gaoidhilge-Sax-Bhearla, p. 273; O'Reilly, Irish-English Dictionary, under Geal.].

[5] and the testimony of Othlo make certain; by no means a Scot or Irishman. But it is worth the labour to see Lanigan extricating himself from this: "It can be conjectured," he says Eccles. hist. of Ireland, vol. III, p. 178., "that his true name was Albuin; which, that it might sound well to German ears, was changed into the corresponding Witta, White." And then he adds in the notes: "Even if it be admitted that the first name was Vitta, Witta or Wettan, it can have been Irish, yet not signifying White in Irish. His English companions, since they saw that it was very close to the word White, could have turned it in Latin into Albuin." But these are mere divinations, destitute of all foundation. The names Albuin and Witta are plainly unknown in Irish and Scottish calendars [Cf. Colgan's indices; likewise those of the Martyrologies of Tallaght and Donegal; Tria glossaria, edited by W. S. London, 1862.]; and only Ailbhe comes somewhat near to Albinus. Then, what Lanigan interposes, that apart from the name of Witta there is nothing to suggest that St. Albinus was an Anglo-Saxon, is not true: for there exists an old testimony by which it appears that St. Albinus was an Anglo-Saxon. Othlo, namely, the biographer of St. Boniface, says openly that St. Witta came from the province and country of the most holy apostle of the Germans Chapter 25, in Mabillon, Sæculum Benedictinum III, part II, p. 42.. Othlo in actual fact is not contemporary, but a writer of the XI century; nevertheless he far surpasses in authority all those who came after.

[6] [St. Albinus was summoned by St. Boniface, like many others, from England; although some came also from the borders of Ireland:] But let us recite the passage itself of Othlo, whence we may learn how St. Albinus or Witta came into Hesse: "Preaching therefore," he says [Life of St. Boniface, bishop, book I, chapter 25, in Mabillon, Sæculum Benedict. III, part II, p. 42.], "and baptizing in the regions of the Thuringians and Hessians, the holy prelate Boniface perceived that the harvest there was indeed great, but the labourers few to instruct the copious multitude of believers; whence sending to his own province and country, he caused to come from there many religious women as well as men, imbued with various knowledge, and divided the burden of his labour among them. Among whom the chief men were Burchard and Lullus, Willibald and Wunnibald his brother, Witta and Gregory: and the religious women, namely the maternal aunt of St. Lullus, by name Chunihilt, and her daughter Berathgit, Chunidrut and Tecla, Lioba and Waltpurgis, sister of Willibald and Wunnibald. But Chunihilt and her daughter Berathgit, very learned in liberal knowledge, were appointed teachers in the region of the Thuringians; Chunitrud was destined for Bavaria, that she might scatter the seeds of the divine word there; Thecla he placed beside the river Main, in the places called Kikhingen and Ochsnofrutt ; Lioba also at Bischofesheim, that there for a multitude of virgins

gathered together she might preside, he appointed her." Othlo narrates these things after he has set forth the foundation of the monastery of Ordorf * in Thuringia, which belongs to the year 724; having Willibald, the first writer of the life of St. Boniface Acta SS., vol. I of June, p. 467., going before him; except that he omitted the names of the men and women. On the other hand the anonymous biographer of St. Boniface of Münster openly states that the helpers were summoned after the holy man, Gewilib having been deposed in the year 745, had been made bishop of Mainz: "Carloman and Pippin," he says Ibid. p. 482., "gathered a synod and caused Blessed Boniface to preside as archbishop of the metropolitan city of Mainz. And St. Boniface, seeing around him that the propagators of the divine word were few,… chose for himself very many physicians of souls. For some from his own nation, others from the side of Francia, some even from the borders of Ireland, that they might be with him as fellow-workers in the vineyard of the Lord: among whom were these: Wigbert from the side of the English, blessed Gregory from the noble stock 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 number one by one."

[7] [he betook himself into Germany about the year 730. It is not established that he was a monk.] And if these things were taken as they are set out, they would assuredly not agree among themselves: but it was the mind neither of Othlo nor of the anonymous writer of Münster to persuade the reader that they were all summoned at one time, and came at one time; but to set out in one course and in one discourse what occurred by turns and over many years. Of each, however, it is very difficult to determine when they passed from England into Germany. As regards St. Albinus, nothing can be affirmed except that he left his country between the years 723 and 740; although he will not be far from the truth who says that he migrated to these parts at about the middle time. For as we shall soon see, in the year 742 he had already been established as bishop in Hesse; to which dignity St. Boniface would certainly not have promoted him, unless after he had proved him for some time and had found by experience that he was bearing good fruit among the Hessians. Nor does he seem in the year 723, when the conversion of the Hessians was first attempted, to have called foreigners to a part in the harvest, but only about the year 724, when he had been created bishop at Rome and had returned from his second journey across the Alps. What St. Albinus was doing before in England is unascertained; not even whether he was a monk, as is now everywhere reported. But from no head of the things he is known to have done in Germany does it appear that he was subject to monastic discipline; and although most who shared the labours of St. Boniface wore the monastic habit, yet Rudolf, the biographer of St. Lioba, abbess of Bischofsheim, indicates that not all were of that class. For in narrating the second Roman journey of St. Boniface, his episcopal ordination and the task committed to him of preaching the word of God to the peoples of Germany: "Where," he thus continues Mabillon, Sæculum Bened. III, part II, p. 250., "when he had found indeed a great harvest and peoples inclined to the faith, but had few labourers to work with him in the Lord's field; he sent envoys and letters to the land of the English, whence he himself had sprung by his parents, and summoned from the different orders of clerics some who were learned in the divine law and fit for preaching the word of life by merit and uprightness of conduct; by whose support he discharged not sluggishly the legation enjoined on him." Nevertheless, although the pious newcomers were of the different orders of clerics, it must be observed that at that time there was not so great a distinction between secular clerics and monks as is discovered at present.

* Kitzingen

* Ochsenfurt

* Ohrdruf

§ II. The boundaries of Hesse, in which St. Albinus laboured; its civil and religious condition; the labours of St. Boniface; the double Amanaburg, the one in Thuringia, the other in Hesse; the pious institutions of Amanaburg, Fritzlar and Seelheim; oratories scattered here and there.

Hesse, whose boundaries are indicated, It is a certain thing that St. Albinus laboured principally in Hesse; although by a vulgar error and too great an extension of Thuringia he is often called the apostle of the Thuringians. To use the words of Georg Christian Crollius, who after Bessel Chronicum Gotwicense, p. 627 and following., most accurate in defining the compass of Hesse, inquired into the former boundaries of this district [De ducatu Franciæ Rhenensis, part I, § VI, in Actis academiæ Theodoro-Palatinæ, vol. III, p. 346.], the province of the Hessians is to be circumscribed by about these boundaries; "so that first, from the sources and courses of the rivers between the Dimola and the Adrana , and after the junction of the Adrana and the Fulda, down the Fulda to Münden or the confluence of the Fulda and the Werra, the borders of the Saxons and Hessians are determined, and then the Werra or Weser separates these from the northern and southern Thuringians; then the forest of Speshard was the boundary toward Franconia, reaching into the Wetterau, a part of which Mount Fugalesberg joins to Hesse, and it itself extends to the upper Lahn district. Beyond the Lahn Hesse, embracing the upper part of the Lahn district, reaches to the forest of the Westerwald, which is to be assigned to the lower Lahngau. Finally the mountain Rothauer, bordering on this forest, and the courses of the rivers toward the Rhine and the Weser, as far as the point at which we began, separated the Hessians from the Westphalian Saxons. And since this description of the boundaries rests on the enumeration of the places assigned to the Hessians, which Bessel made with the greatest diligence, we easily dispense with longer proof… But Hesse, though parted from the Ripuarians, seems nevertheless to have remained with them, as regards the region which reached beyond the Lahn to the Saxons and all the way to the Rhine, so far as it belonged to the diocese of Trier, until the old division into the kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria was superseded by the new one, which began to obtain toward the middle of the IX century." It comprised therefore several lesser districts, namely Bernuffe, Melisungen, Liesi on the Eder near Franckenberg, Germeramarca, a great part of the upper Lahn district and the greater part of the district of Weitereibe or Wetterau; although, adds Bessel Chronicum Gotwicense, p. 628., a plainly accurate description of the limits of the Hessian district, both toward the west on the Lahn and the Eder and toward the north on the Saxon-Westphalian districts of Wessiga, Wentsga and Nitherga, cannot be determined, on account of the confusion of which the anonymous Saxon poet also complains at the year 772, when he sings:

…The land of the Saxons lies next to the Franks

Toward the north *; scarcely by a certain limit

Divided, the borders of the two peoples cohere.

[9] [the ancient Catti dwelt there, then living by the laws of the Franks, yet under a singular government of their own. With how great a protection of Charles Martel St. Boniface, having been made his subject, was defended there.] In the VIII century the Catti inhabited that province; whose name passed into Chatti, Hatti, Hazzi, Hassi, Hessi, etc., by the accustomed inflection of letters [Cf. Estor, De antiqua Hassiæ formula, in Kuchenbecker, Analecta Hassiaca, vol. II, p. 348 and following. Seiters, Bonifacius, Apostel der Deutschen, p. 123.]. The Hessians had long since been reckoned among the Franks, who it is a firm opinion consisted of many tribes of Germany Cf. the Writers reviewed by Estor, p. 352.; so that they had good and evil fortune for the most part in common Cf. Eckhart, Francia orientalis, vol. I, pp. 6 and 16.. The Hessians, namely, were subject to the Franks and enjoyed and held the law of the Franks Cf. Crollius. Dissert. cit. in Actis acad. Theod. Palat. vol. III, p. 374.; for which reason that Saxon poet sang In Bessel, Chron. Gotw. p. 628.:

The Saxons daring to invade the borders contiguous to them,

The district of the Franks which is called Hessi.

Similarly St. Ludger, bishop Acta SS. vol. I of June, p. 484., in the Life of St. Gregory, bishop of Utrecht, calls the Hessians and Thuringians the eastern regions of the Franks. But the Hessians sharply maintain that Hesse had its own formula, that is, that it was distinct in government from the adjacent districts, and above all that the Hessians were by no means hidden under the name of the Thuringians [Cf. Estor, De ant. Hassiæ formula, in Kuchenbecker, vol. II, p. 354 and following.], nor their lands comprised within the boundaries of Franconia Cf. Crollius, Diss. cit. in Actis acad. Palat. vol. III, p. 345., and that it was not even a part of Rhenish Francia or of the Rhenish duchy of the Austrasians Ibid., p. 375.. And indeed in so many places, above all those in which the deeds of St. Boniface and his companions are set forth, the Hessians are distinguished from the Thuringians, that they could not but be different. Which reason also has force against their being ascribed to the Franconians, since these are none other than the Thuringians on this side of the Werra, freed from the yoke of the Saxons by Charlemagne and ordered to live by the laws of the Franks together with their liberators, and hence called New Franks Cf. Eckhart, Francia orientalis, vol. I, p. 377.. Similarly it is much more probable that Hesse, which everywhere comes forth as a distinct region, was not enclosed in the boundaries of Rhenish Francia. As regards the Rhenish duchy of the Franks, since it did not yet exist in the times of St. Albinus, it need not be determined in this place whether Hesse was a part of it: meanwhile see the dissertation of Crollius. This then is to be held, that Hesse was a distinct province, using the law of the Franks, subject to the kings of the Franks, and governed by its own magnates; whom we may promiscuously call counts, dukes, marquises and by other names, since at that time there were no fixed degrees in these names, and civil and political authority inhered in every dignity, and was never separated from military power or from judicial office. And since Hesse, like Thuringia, was in the dominion of the Franks, therefore St. Boniface, when he returned from Rome the second time and came back again to the Hessians, did this, as Willibald expresses it Acta SS. vol. I of June, p. 467, num. 33., with the consent of Duke Charles, who is also called Martel, and subjecting himself to his dominion and patronage, as Othlo adds Book I, chapter 22, in Mabillon, Sæc. Bened. III, part II, p. 40.. How useful this protection was, St. Boniface himself impresses in three places in letter XII to Daniel of Winchester. See what he says in the middle of the letter In Migne, Patrologia latina, vol. LXXXIX, col. 702.: "Without the patronage of the prince of the Franks I can neither rule the people, nor defend (or rather restrain) priests or deacons, monks or handmaids of God, nor am I able to prohibit the very rites of the pagans and the sacrileges of idols in Germany, without his command and the fear of him."

[10] [The Christian religion had once been preached in Thuringia and perhaps in Hesse, but in the VIII century it had almost perished.] Since from the Lives of St. Boniface and his companions it is exceedingly manifest that the Hessians, Thuringians and other peoples of Germany were taught by them all those things which the holy Roman catholic church believes, a number of Protestants once rose up against them, asserting with incredible vehemence

that he is unjustly called the apostle of the Germans; that the divine word had already been scattered in Germany before him; and that only tares were sown by him. I pass over this last taunt. Certainly, since there were old churches along the Rhine and in some places along the Danube; since St. Goar and St. Lubentius had spent some labour in converting them to the true faith; and since there was much commerce between the Germans and the Franks, long since engrafted into Christ, the Hessians, Thuringians, Bavarians and others could not have heard nothing of the Gospel. What of the fact that St. Gregory of Tours is a witness Life of St. Boniface, Acta SS., vol. I of June, p. 464. that the Thuringians, when they had been subdued by Theodoric, son of Clovis I, also received Christian laws? And indeed, if we hear Willibald Hist. eccl. Franc., book V, chapters 4, 7 and 9., the holy man of God Boniface in Thuringia, when he first came there, "addressed with spiritual words the senators of the people, and finally the leaders of the whole population; and called them to the true way of knowledge and the light of understanding; which of old, seduced for the most part by evil teachers, they had lost; but they had neglected both priests and presbyters …" Nor was the condition of Hesse, situated not so far from Mainz, Trier and Cologne, doubtless any different, when St. Boniface came there.

[11] [St. Boniface founds a church with a monastery at Amanaburg among the Hessians, which is to be distinguished from the place of the same name among the Thuringians.] But this most blessed man, the divine spirit assisting him, changed it in a short time. They would have it that he came to this district when, after beginning the conversion of Thuringia and visiting St. Willibrord and the Frisians, he returned into Germany in the year 723: to which they draw what Willibald, having narrated his Frisian journey, adds: "Setting out at once," he says, "he came to the place which bears the name Amanaburch… And the aforesaid place, over which twin brothers presided, namely Deldic and Dierolf, by the Lord's help he obtained, and called them back from the sacrilegious rule of idols, which under a certain name of Christianity they had evilly abused; and he drew back a very great crowd of the people, the way of right understanding being opened and the horror of errors being laid down, from the malevolent superstition of heathenism; and, a congregation of servants of God having been gathered, he built a cell of a monastery." It is the common opinion that these latter things belong to Hesse, and that hence it can be understood what was before the religious condition of this province and what the beginnings of the conversion of the nation which St. Albinus afterwards first cultivated with the episcopal office; and I shall not deny that I too at first went over to this opinion. Nevertheless it is manifest that these sayings still belong to Thuringia. For in the first place Willibald continues immediately: "Similarly," (he was therefore speaking before of another nation), "and near the borders of the Saxons, he freed the people of the Hessians, still wandering in pagan rites, from the captivity of demons by preaching the evangelical commandments." Not otherwise Othlo, after he had narrated the foundation of that monastery of Amanaburg, adds: "Then also he went to other parts of Germany for the sake of preaching, namely the Hessians, situated on the border of the Saxons." Secondly, there exists in Thuringia, toward Bavaria, on the Franconian Saale, a place now called Hamelburg, formerly Hamulo castellum, Hamulanburgum, Amœneburgum, Hamanaburgum, Adamanaburgum and Ameneburc Seiters, Bonifacius, Apostel der Deutschen, p. 120.; and this had been given by the illustrious man Heden, who thought to establish a monastery there, to St. Willibrord [See the Charter of donation in Martène and Durand, Eckhart and Seiters, Bonifacius, etc., p. 103.], and indeed that place was in fact made a cell in the VIII century, under the title of St. John the Baptist, dependent on the monastery of Fulda Seiters, p. 122.. Thirdly, Willibald Acta SS., vol. I of June, p. 467. narrates much later that a church was built by the holy apostle in Hesse at Hamanaburch, which he dedicated in honour of St. Michael the archangel: so that two places called Hamanaburg must be distinguished, which have preserved monuments of the religion and piety of St. Boniface, the one in Thuringia, the other in Hesse; which Seiters first saw and diligently explained Bonifacius, etc., p. 117 and following..

[12] [St. Boniface twice goes to the Hessians, baptizes and confirms many thousands of them; he builds an oratory at Geismar near Fritzlar;] After therefore St. Boniface had laboured a second time for some while in Thuringia, he went to the Hessians near the borders of the Saxons; and "many thousands of men," says Willibald Acta SS., vol. I of June, p, 466., "having been baptized, the pagan antiquity having been purged away, he sent a suitable messenger and faithful bearer of his letters, by name Binna, to Rome, and revealed everything … to the venerable father, the pontiff of the apostolic see, Gregory II, asking at the same time for counsels and instructions." But he himself was summoned to Rome and on the feast of St. Andrew the apostle, in that same year 723, was ordained bishop without a fixed see and sent back to preach the Gospel. He then set out on the road without delay, turning his journey to Charles Martel; and, subjected to his dominion and patronage, he returned to the bounds of the Hessians formerly occupied, with the consent of Duke Charles. "Then indeed many of the Hessians, now subject to the catholic faith and confirmed by the grace of the sevenfold Spirit, received the imposition of hands: and others indeed, not yet strengthened in spirit, refused to receive the teachings of the undefiled faith; some also sacrificed to trees and springs secretly, and others openly. Others again practised divinations and soothsaying, conjuring and incantations in secret, and others openly: others indeed gave themselves to auguries and auspices, and kept up diverse rites of sacrifice; others also, in whom there was a sounder mind, having cast off all the profanation of heathenism, committed none of these things. By the advice and counsel of these, a certain tree of wonderful size, which by the ancient word of the pagans is called the Oak of Jupiter *, in the place which is called Gicesmere (now the village of Geismar in the district Amte of Gudensberg not far from Fritzlar Seiters, Bonifacius, etc., pp. 155 and 156.), the servants of God standing with him, not without a prodigy, he cut down, and from its wood he built an oratory", dedicated in honour of St. Peter Willibald, Life of St. Boniface, Acta SS., vol. I of June, p. 467..

[13] Meanwhile, however, the Christian cause was altogether perishing in Thuringia; [he receives fellow-workers; he increases the number of monks; he builds monasteries at Fritzlar and Amanaburg in Hesse; he is accustomed to reside at Seelheim:] so that the blessed man was compelled to hasten there and restore the fallen piety. "At which time, as the multitude of believers gradually grew strong, the roll of preachers also was multiplied; .. and a monastery, with a united company of servants of God and with the holiness of monks, was built in the place which is called Opdorp," now Ohrdruf; "who by their own hands, in the apostolic manner, gained their food and clothing by earnest labour" Ibid., loc. cit.. About the year 731 the holy man again sent envoys to Rome; and they received without delay from Pope Gregory III (his predecessor had not long since died) a gracious reply, with the archiepiscopal pallium and relics. "When the messengers therefore arrived and reported the willing replies of the apostolic man, now full of thanksgiving, greatly strengthened by the support of the devotion of the apostolic see and inspired by the aid of the divine mercy, he built two churches to the Lord in Hesse, where he was then staying; one at Fridislar, which he consecrated in honour of Saints Peter and Paul, the chief of the apostles; and the other at Hamanaburch, which also he dedicated in honour of St. Michael the archangel. He also joined two little monasteries to the two churches, and supplied them with no small multitude of those serving God; so that" (adds Willibald in wonder) "to this day glory, and blessing, and thanksgiving is devoutly offered to the Lord God" Ibid., loc. cit.. Whence it is plain that as it were the hinge of the Hessian mission was established at Fritzlar and in its neighbourhood. For Hamanaburg or Hessian Amanaburg, which we have taught above is different from the Thuringian one, is the present town of Amöneburg, on the river Amana (commonly the Ohm), in upper Hesse, not far from the borders of Thuringia, near Seleheim (Gross-und-Klein-Seelheim) and Bretten-Brunum, Breittenbrunon or Breidenborn, a village formerly between Ebsdorf and Beltershausen Seiters, Bonifacius, etc. p. 229.: which places are joined together in the testament of a certain cleric, Adalger by name, a man of good conversation, an adherent of St. Boniface; who, overtaken by a grave infirmity, with the counsel of the man of God handed over whatever estates of paternal inheritance he had in the places named below, that is, at Amanaburg, at Brettenbrunum and Seleheim, to St. Martin or the cathedral church of Mainz [Othlo, Life of St. Boniface, book II, chapter XIX, in Mabillon, Sæc. Bened. III, part II, p. 272.]. And indeed (to note this in passing about Seelheim) it appears from the Life of St. Sturm that St. Boniface was accustomed to reside there; where indeed the future abbot of Fulda twice went to him: "The man of God Sturm," says Eigil his disciple and biographer Life of St. Sturm, in Mabillon, Sæc. Ben. III, part II, p. 83., "set out at once; and taking to the road, hastened to Seleheim, where he learned the holy bishop was; and on the second day from his setting out he came on foot to the bishop and found him in the place above mentioned, Frideslar"; and on another occasion, "suddenly, the prayer of the brethren having been asked, he himself set out for Selehim, to seek the bishop" Ibid., p. 274..

[14] The chief fortunes of the monasteries of Amanaburg and Fritzlar. In Seelheim, therefore, Amanaburg and Fritzlar lay the greatest strength and the bulwark of religion. Nevertheless the little monastery of Amanaburg seems never to have been increased by great growth; about the year 1062 indeed it still existed; but half a century later it ceased, its goods being joined to the church of Mainz. Since however the church still survived, it was made collegiate by Archbishop Gerlach in the year 1360, under the title of St. John the Baptist [Seiters, Bonifacius, etc., p. 231; Hirsching, Stifts-und-Closter-Lexicon, vol. I, pp. 111 and 112.]. In the XV century it had almost perished, when in the year 1417 it was furnished with a new endowment, nor however did it greatly flourish. It is no pleasure to pursue its fortunes more widely. The fame of the institution of Fritzlar was more celebrated, but its fortune not much happier. Laid waste by the Saxons in the year 774, it returned somewhat to life; but at the end of the VIII century it seems to vanish from the historical records, until in the year 1085 it appears having a provost and canons, who soon followed the laws of secular clerics. These persisted there until after the treaty of Lunéville of the year 1803, by which Fritzlar passed from the right of the archbishop of Mainz into the dominion of the princes of Hesse; who had nothing more urgent than that, under the appearance of a better use, the college of canons being suppressed, the revenues of the goods should be applied to other works. Yet the church of St. Peter still stands, grand, beautiful, though built according to the most diverse designs of architects. And what was the chief praise of the old canons, they always resisted with admirable constancy, even when the archbishops of Mainz gave way, lest the Lutheran opinions should enjoy the right of citizenship at Fritzlar. Assuredly they could not but endure many blasphemies, but in the Thirty Years' War victorious at length was

their splendid and long fortitude [Falckenheiner, Geschichte Hessischer Städte und Stifter, vol. I, p. 73 and following; 270 and following; vol. II, p. 41 and following.].

[15] [St. Boniface founds many other churches: but scandals and dangers were not lacking. Such was the condition of Hesse when St. Albinus was made its bishop.] But beware of believing that other churches were not provided by St. Boniface; (Willibald mentioned only the monastic ones, because they were excellent seed-beds of religion and as it were camps of the faith, and that of Geismar, because a prodigy was seen in the casting down of the oak;) this was his singular care and solicitude, that oratories should be raised everywhere in fields, villages and estates, in Frisia, Thuringia and Hesse: which, like so many other things, the most diligent biographer of St. Boniface, Seiters Bonifacius, der Apostel der Deutschen, p. 165., not only remarked, but demonstrated by collating passages from Willibald and Othlo. But since Hesse alone concerns us, it will suffice to recite from Willibald those words in which he indicates what was the condition of this province when St. Boniface, at sixty, set out for Rome for the third time in the year 738: "And when," he says Acta SS., vol. I of June, p. 468, num. 41., "no small multitude of churches had been built among the Hessians and in Thuringia, and individual guardians had been provided for each; then also a third time, on account of his familiar communion with the holy apostolic pontiff and the whole clergy, with a company of disciples accompanying him, he came to Rome." In providing these things St. Boniface had in Hesse a vigorous helper, St. Gregory Ibid., p. 485, num. 9, from the Life of St. Gregory, written by St. Ludger., a Frank by nation; whom he had admitted as a disciple at the XIV or XV year of his age and who afterwards was made bishop of Utrecht. But as these were good seeds cast in the fertile field of Hesse, so tares were not lacking, either springing up of themselves or oversown by an enemy. And none were more hostile than the priests and deacons who could not bear the severity of the most holy man, a very sharp exactor of priestly chastity; and the monks and nuns who, having shaken off the yoke of regular discipline, had cast themselves into the abyss of lusts; and many of whom either went over to the heretics or again embraced the ancient rites of heathenism. There remained therefore, to use the words of St. Boniface in letter XII to Daniel of Winchester, "with the pagans, and with the mixed and the common multitude, outward battles; but inward ones, when anyone from the bosom of mother church, priest or deacon, ecclesiastic or monk, departed from the faith and the truth: then thereupon he broke out with the pagans into insults against the sons of the church and is a horrible obstacle to the Gospel of the glory of Christ." To which dangers were added the continual threats and invasions of the neighbouring Saxons; which Charles Martel had repulsed in the years 718, 724 and more recently in the year 738; so that, although through the last defeat the power of the Franks seemed already firm in southern Thuringia and in Hesse, it could nevertheless be shaken and the peoples disturbed.

* Eder

* Vogelsberg

* Hesse

* Thunars Eiche

§ III. The foundation of the bishoprics of Würzburg, Erfurt and Büraberg. St. Albinus, bishop of Büraberg.

[St. Boniface erects three new sees, namely at Würzburg, Erfurt and Büraberg, for Franconia, southern Thuringia and Hesse;] But truly, in this difficult and uncertain state of affairs nothing was better than that episcopal chairs should be erected and excellent prelates chosen, who might look into matters more closely; keep watch over priests, monks and neophytes; spur on the ardour of some and direct that of others; sustain and confirm the weak, but crush the perverse and obstinate; finally extend the compass of religion and defend it from enemies within and without. In the year 739 therefore, having returned from Rome, by papal mandate, he divided into four dioceses Bavaria, to which he had also extended his cares and which until then had had one bishop, each with its own bishop placed over it. Two years later, or rather at the end of the year 741, relying on the same authority, he divided into three dioceses the southern part of his mission, which was of the dominion of Carloman: an episcopal see being established in the duchy of Franconia at Wirziburg or Herbipolis; in Suththuringia or southern Thuringia, which also was afterwards called simply Thuringia, at Erpesfurt *, in place of which after a long interval of time the chair of Naumburg was erected; and in Hesse at Buraburg. Since therefore the most holy man with splendid zeal of mind desired to preserve the catholic faith and the unity of the Roman church, "and did not cease to invite and incline as many hearers or disciples as God had given him in this legation to obedience to the apostolic see," he wished this his constitution, although he had made it by virtue of a power communicated long since, to be confirmed by Pope Zachary. Wherefore he wrote to him in these words Letter of St. Boniface XLIX, in Migne, Patrol. lat., vol. LXXXIX, col. 744.: "We find it necessary also to indicate to your paternity that by the grace of God, the peoples of Germany having been to some extent traversed or corrected, we have ordained three bishops; and have divided the province into three parishes; and we desire, with prayer, that those three towns or cities in which they have been established and ordained be confirmed and made fast by writings of your authority. We have decreed that one see of a bishopric be in the fort which is called Wirzaburg; and another in the town which is named Buraburg; the third in the place which is called Erphesfurt, which was formerly a city of pagan rustics: [rather it should be read: And another in the town which is named Buraburg, which was formerly a city of pagan rustics; the third in the place which is called Erphesfurt.] These three places we diligently ask to be strengthened and confirmed by a charter of its own and by the authority of your apostolate, that (if the Lord wills) by the authority and precept of St. Peter there may by apostolic commands be founded and made firm three episcopal sees in Germany, and that present or future generations may not presume to corrupt the parishes, or to violate the precept of the apostolic see."

[17] which Pope St. Zachary approves: Zachary was flooded with joy when he heard that new peoples had been engrafted into the bosom of the church: "Where also," he says in his reply to the requests of St. Boniface Letter of St. Zachary, pope, II, in Migne, vol. LXXXIX, col. 918 and 919., "we have learned that you have ordained three bishops in the several places according to the sequence of your syllables, who ought to preside over that same people whom the Lord our God has deigned to gather to himself through your holiness, and you have asked that by the authority of our see the episcopal sees there be confirmed. But let your holy fraternity consider this maturely and discern by subtle consideration whether it is expedient, or whether the places or the crowds of the peoples are shown to be such as to deserve to have bishops. For you remember, dearest one, what we are commanded in the sacred canons to observe, that we should by no means ordain bishops in small villages, or in modest cities, lest the name of bishop should grow cheap. But we, called on by your most sincere syllables which are beloved by us, suffer what you have demanded to be granted without delay; and we decree by apostolic authority that there be episcopal sees there which may deserve bishops by succession, and preside over the peoples, and in which the word of preaching may be instilled into those subject: that is, in the fort which is called Wirzburg, and the second in the town which is named Buraburg, the third in the place which is called Erphesfurt; so that it may be lawful for no one after this in any way to violate these things which have been sanctioned by us, which by the authority of blessed Peter the apostle we have decreed to be firm."

[18] [there were placed over them St. Burchard at Würzburg, perhaps St. Adelar at Erfurt, and St. Witta or Albinus at Büraberg:] From the priest Deneard, to whom St. Boniface had entrusted his letters to be carried to Rome, St. Zachary learned the names of the three bishops; of whom now only two are certainly known. For concerning the bishop of Erfurt there is much debate. For some would have it that it was indeed the design of St. Boniface to establish an episcopal chair at Erfurt, but that this was not accomplished by him; others that it is a blunder: that in all the copies of the letters of St. Boniface and St. Zachary, and even in what Othlo in the XI century copied in his Life of St. Boniface, Erphesfurt is indeed read, but that Eichstätt should be substituted, of which the first bishop was St. Willibald: but (as we shall demonstrate a little later) St. Willibald was consecrated bishop later; others therefore urge that Erfurt should be retained, and that its first bishop was St. Adelar, who was slain with St. Boniface; and finally others that an episcopal see was most certainly established at Erfurt, but that it did not persevere for long, and that it is not certainly known who was the first bishop, although it is likely that it was St. Adelar: which last opinion seems to me by far the most prudent. That St. Burchard was placed in the chair of Würzburg and St. Witta or Albinus in that of Büraberg is an undoubted fact.

[19] [to each of whom St. Zachary gave letters in the year 743; and the German council was celebrated in the same year 743.] To the three bishops at the same time Pope St. Zachary gave letters, by which he again and singly confirmed the institution of each see and by which he stirred them individually to discharge their office vigorously: "For the rest," he says Letter III, in Migne, Patrologia latina, vol. LXXIX, col. 923., "we ask the divine clemency that it may confirm and strengthen this which the Lord has wrought in you. May the charity of God, and peace, and grace be with your spirit, most holy and most beloved by us. With all endeavour labour for the faith of Christ, and strive to accomplish his ministry, that with the excellent apostle you may deserve to say: 'I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. 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 (I Tim. IV).' Greeting you in the Lord we wish you to be well. Fare well. Given on the kalends of April, in the reign of the lord Constantine the great emperor, in the XXIV year, in the II year of his empire, in the XI indiction." These notes, by which the 1st day of April of the year 743 is designated, are by all means to be retained; both because they are read inscribed on three letters of St. Zachary, sent at the same time, and because they agree with the time of the priestly and episcopal ordination of St. Willibald: which time will appear below to be most certain. In vain therefore did Pagi Critice in Annales Baronii at the year 742, num. 7. wish that the year of the empire II should be removed and that there be read in the year XXII, indiction X, because the letters given to St. Boniface and ending in the same words were manifestly written before the council celebrated in Germany by St. Boniface in the year from the incarnation of the Lord 742, namely on the XI of the kalends of May. But with this Mansi does not agree, determining that the German council was held in the year 743, and that three weeks earlier there were written

the letters of St. Zachary. "This council," he says [Ibid. in the notes and in the separate dissertation on the synods held in Germany, Gaul and Italy by St. Boniface and Pope Zachary and on the mutual letters of Pope Zachary and St. Boniface, in Migne, Patrologia, vol. LXXXIX, col. 837 and following.], "is celebrated on the IX day of the kalends of May. Now that day fell on a Sunday in the following year (743), but not in the present one (742). And it is known that in these times councils were usually assembled only on Sundays." Which opinion is good, although the argument is not good, since it is certain that according to the more ancient discipline a beginning was given to councils on any weekday Cf. this very vol. XI of October, pp. 841 and 842.; except that for national assemblies (as these councils were) Sunday was more convenient than the others. I pass over the fact that Binterim Geschichte der deutschen Concilien, vol. II, pp. 18 and 19. draws both the letters of St. Zachary and that German council to the year 744.

[20] Büraberg is indicated as the see of St. Albinus. The see of St. Albinus in the letters of St. Boniface to St. Zachary and in the latter's replies is called Buraburg; which name is to be retained, although in Serarius's edition the letters given to St. Albinus bear this inscription: "To our most beloved Wittana of the holy church of Barbarena, Pope Zachary"; and in Binius's edition: "To our most beloved Witta of the holy church of Barbarena, Pope Zachary"; and in note 29 of Serarius on the Life of St. Boniface from a third codex: "To our most beloved Witta of the holy church of Birburg, Pope Zachary" [Cf. Patrologia latina Migne, vol. LXXXIX, col. 921 and 922. Cf. Würdtwein edition, pp. 117 and 118.]. This name signifies the town of rustics: for bur, bura, buro, giburo, the u having everywhere the sound of the Greek diphthong ου, in Dutch with the same sound boer, in German bauer, in English bower, is a farmer, or a man dwelling in the country and gaining his living from the cultivation of his own or rent-paying fields Cf. Adelung, Wörterbuch, under Bauer.; and burg is a castle or town, fortified with walls of whatever kind. It will therefore have been a safe place, which the neighbouring farmers (who otherwise in German parts scarcely ever lived within walls) chose for themselves and fortified against the incursions of the Saxons. Wherefore in the letter of St. Boniface it is said of it that it "was formerly a city of pagan rustics"; how absurdly the copyists transferred these words to Erfurt is plain to the eyes.

[21] The site of Büraberg near Fritzlar is accurately indicated; But what that place now is or where it lies, there has not been one opinion among the learned; although now they seem to agree better. Serarius Rerum Mogunticarum vol. I, book III, note XXIX, p. 313. and Würdtwein Epist. S. Bonifacii, p. 118, note. would have it to be Warburg, which place is between Fritzlar and Paderborn: but this rests on the foundation that St. Albinus was bishop of Barbarena. Others however were pleased to say that Büren, which likewise is a place in the diocese of Paderborn, was the see of the holy bishop Cf. Seiters, Bonifacius der Apostel der Deutschen, p. 317.; but although Büren, as also Beuern in Ottenbeurn, Blauenbeurn etc. Adelung, Wörterbuch, under Bauer., signifies a rustic village and so far approaches the sense of the word Buraburg, yet by the very fact that it is said of a village and not of a town, it cannot be admitted as an episcopal see. Moreover Büren and Warburg were not in Hesse, but in Saxony. It is now agreed, therefore, above all after Johann Hermann Schmincke in the year 1717 at Marburg published his historical Dissertation on the bishopric of Büraberg in lower Hesse (which however I have known only from another's report), it is agreed, I say, that Büraberg was near Fritzlar, on the bank of the stream Adrana *; which place in the common speech is called Buraberg, and on the Hoffmann maps Bierberg. Falckenheiner graphically describes it in his historical description of Fritzlar Geschichte Hessischer Städte und Stifter, vol. I, pp. 7 and 8.: namely, before the Adrana, gliding down from the mountains of the principality of Waldeck and entering the borders of electoral Hesse, flows into the very fertile valley to which it communicates its name, there rises a mountain sheer on three sides, forty years ago covered on its slopes with a wood of trees, now altogether bald and like a huge cone. It is ascended by two very difficult paths, having innumerable turnings and returnings: the one on the south, by which one comes from Fritzlar, the other on the north, which leads from the village of Ungedanken. On the top of the mountain there stands a chapel; and from there a view opens over a very ample and most beautiful valley. Almost opposite that mountain, toward the summer east, on the left bank of the Adrana, between Ungedanken and Geismar, there rises another mountain, still higher, and no less sheer, on whose summit there still appear many cut stones, the remains of old walls. They would have it that there stood the oak or Oak of Jupiter, which tree we have taught above was wonderfully cut down by St. Boniface Geschicte Hessischer Städte und Stifter, vol. I, p. 9.. But this prodigy was done at Geismar; the latter part of which name signifies not a mountain, but a marsh. Nor does it help that that mountain is near, and can now be held a part of Geismar; for formerly it was most certainly distinct from Geismar, since on it there rose a separate town. And since on this latter mountain there stood a fortified castle, whose ruined walls appear, do not contend that Büraberg was rather placed on that mountain. For from the Life of St. Wigbert, whose relics in the year 774 were carried from Fritzlar to Büraberg for fear of the Saxons, it is plain that this fort was built on the right bank of the Adrana. For since from Fritzlar, which rises on the left bank, they were carrying them to Büraberg, or (as is read there) Buriburch, they first came into a valley not very low, which is opposite the town; then they crossed the river Adrana, and so they carried the precious relics of the blessed man into the town of Büraberg [Life of St. Wigbert, by Bl. Servatus Lupus, chapters XIII and following, in Mabillon, sæculum Bened. III, part I, pp. 677 and 678.]. Cast your eyes on a topographical map; and no doubt will remain. Then the very name Bürberg comes very close to Buriburg; and thirdly and finally, here too are seen traces of old walls: of which we shall speak at the end, when the last fortunes of this town are to be explained.

* Erfurt

* Edder

§ IV. The time of the consecration of St. Willibald, bishop of Eichstätt, and of the first German council, in which St. Albinus takes part. The translation of St. Wigbert. The death and burial of St. Albinus at Hersfeld.

[On the 21st day of October of the year 742 St. Albinus together with SS. Boniface and Burchard consecrates St. Willibald, who had received the priesthood between the 22nd and 23rd of July of the year 741.] We now fall upon the much-vexed questions of the episcopal consecration of St. Willibald, first bishop of Eichstätt, of the time of the celebration of the first German Council, and of other chronological knots depending on them, in which the deeds of St. Albinus also are entangled. But we may extricate ourselves from these briefly. We have taught above that the German Council was held on the XI of the kalends of May, or the 21st day of April, which was a Sunday, in the year 743; at which St. Willibald was present, called Witbald in the Acts: so that he was already then a bishop. Now it seems to me that it must be asserted that he received the imposition of hands from St. Boniface, bishop of Mainz, from St. Burchard, bishop of Würzburg, and from St. Albinus, who is also Witta and Wizo, on the 21st day of October of the year 742, which was a Sunday. That is to say, when in the spring of the year 738 St. Boniface had gone to Rome and spent the remainder of the year there, he learned that the two brothers St. Wunebald and St. Willibald, English by nation, and returned from a long pilgrimage to Jerusalem, were living most holily, the former at Rome, the latter at Cassino. These he prevailed upon to come with him into Germany, to give their labour to the new plantation. "After this, the tales of the oracles being then finished, St. Willibald went on from there at Easter" of the year 739, as the nun of Heidenheim expresses it Acta SS., vol. II of July, p. 510., who committed to writing the deeds and above all the journeys of St. Willibald. He proceeded first into Bavaria to Duke Odilo; thence to Suitger, count of Hirschberg, who had handed over the region of Eystet to St. Boniface Ibid., p. 511., staying with neither more than one week; and finally to St. Boniface himself, likewise returned from Rome, who sent him to Eystet, that he might see how it pleased him. These things were done about the middle of the year 739. "Before St. Willibald was consecrated priest, he remained for some delay of time in Eichstet. Afterwards they went again to St. Boniface at Freising. And there they were with him, until all together came again to Eystet. And there then St. Boniface consecrated St. Willibald to the rank of priestly dignity." In these things, therefore, more than a whole two years were spent, since St. Willibald was most certainly made a priest on the days of the 22nd and 23rd of July of the year 741. For the nun of Heidenheim adds: "On the very day on which our bishop St. Willibald was consecrated to the priesthood, it was the eleventh of the kalends of August, at the feast of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Apollinaris" Ibid., in the place cited.. In which last words a manifest indication of the time is contained: which I wonder has not been seen by Mabillon Acta SS. Ord. S. Bened. sæc. III, part II, pp. 390 and 391., Sollier Acta SS., vol. II of July, p. 489 and following., Bue Ibid., vol. VI of October, p. 562., Eckhart Francia orientalis, vol. I, p. 379 and elsewhere here and there., Falckenstein Antiquitates Nordgavienses, vol. I, p. 11 and following., Luidl Eichstättisches Heiligthum, diss. I, here and there., Crammer Heiliges und gottseliges Eichstädt, p. 23 and following., Hartzheim Concilia Germaniæ, vol. I, p. 346., Binterim Geschichte der deutschen Concilien, vol. II, pp. 30 and 31., Seiters Bonifacius, der Apostel de Deutschen, p. 341 and following., Sax [Versuch einer Geschichte der Hochstiftes und der stad Eichstädt, p. 7 and following.] and others.

[23] St. Boniface in ordaining priests sometimes did not observe the Ember days, For first of all it is certain that St. Boniface in ordaining priests more often took account of necessity than of the sacred canons. In the capitulary indeed, given to Bishop Martinian and the priest George, sent into Bavaria, Pope Gregory II had prescribed that the ordinations of priests or deacons should be celebrated only at the fasts of the fourth, seventh and tenth months, but also at the beginning of Lent and at the mid evening

of Saturday [Hartzheim, Concilia Germaniæ, vol. I, col. 36; and the Letter of Gregory II to the clergy of Germany, among the Bonifatian letters, in Serarius, CXXIV; in Würdtwein, X.]. But the holy man had not observed these things; and although necessity makes lawful what is not lawful in law Rule of law, Decretals book V, at the end., he was anxious because under that necessity he had sometimes gone beyond them; and he wrote about this matter to Pope St. Zachary; who in the year 751 replied in these words Among the Bonifatian letters in Serarius, CXLII; in Würdtwein, LXXXVII.: "Concerning the ordination also of priests and deacons who, under the compulsion of necessity and the poverty of those asking, came to you not at the lawful times and days, you have intimated whether you should have any offence from this. But we say to you, brother, you know well that the sacred canons teach that priests are to be ordained at suitable times. Nevertheless, in that which has been done by you on account of zeal for the faith, let us ask indulgence from the Lord our God." Two precepts, then, were contained in the law concerning the time of ordinations: that they should be done on the Ember days and that they should be celebrated on the mid evening of Saturday; then it is established that these were not always observed by St. Boniface: of which thing an example is the very priestly ordination of St. Willibald, done in the month of July, outside the Ember days.

[24] [but he did not on that account neglect the prescribed night of Saturday and Sunday;] But because he did not observe the month or the appointed week, since neither could he himself then come to St. Willibald, nor St. Willibald to him, it cannot therefore be supposed that he did not observe the day of the week, especially since the days were near, and poverty did not press, Suitger supplying all things in abundance. Let it be certain therefore that the priestly ordination of St. Willibald was begun on the eleventh of the kalends of August or the 22nd day of July, at the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, on the mid evening of Saturday, and completed on the 23rd day of July, at the feast of St. Apollinaris. For from many testimonies, which Martène has gathered above all from Pope St. Leo I [De antiquis ecclesiæ ritibus, book I, chapter VIII, art. IV, vol. II, p. 283 and following, edition of 1700.], it is established that priestly or levitical ordination could not be celebrated except on the day of the Lord's resurrection, that is, on Sunday, "to which a beginning is established as ascribed from the evening of Saturday" Letter XI to Dioscorus of Alexandria., or on the morning of Sunday itself, "the fast of Saturday being continued, from which time the fasts of the preceding night do not withdraw" Letter X to the bishops of the province of Vienne.. This law was still observed in Germany in the XII century, in which Rupert of Deutz wrote De divinis officiis, book III, chapter 8. that the sacraments of ordinations are assigned to the Lord's day, in whose evening they are done, and that both on the evening of Saturday and on the morning of the first day of the week they can and may be celebrated by fasting men for fasting men. Hence, as the monk Condeluc is read in the Deeds of the saints of Redon to have received the rank of the priesthood on a Sunday [Book II, chapter 3, in D. Morice, Preuves de l'Hist. de Bretagne, vol. I, col. 246.] in Lesser Britain, so St. Conrad, entering the monastery of St. Gall on the Saturday before the Sunday of Indulgence or of Palms, honourably received (as was fitting), "is reported to have spent the next day, … spiritually celebrating Masses, … wholesomely ordaining many … in the various grades" In Goldast, Rer. Alemann. vol. II, p. 183.. Now in the year 741, with dominical letter A, the 22nd of July coincided with Saturday, and the 23rd with Sunday: so that all things agree; whereas on the contrary, if it be said (as most are pleased to say) that St. Willibald was ordained priest in the year 740, St. Boniface would have begun the imposition of hands on a Friday and completed it on a Saturday; which assuredly is not credible.

[25] [hence it follows that the priesthood and episcopate of St. Willibald are commonly recorded one year too early. The bishopric of Eichstätt was erected not in the year 745 but in 742.] Thence it follows that St. Willibald was created bishop on the 21st day of October of the year 742. For the nun of Heidenheim, when she has narrated his priestly ordination, thus continues Acta SS., vol. II of July, p. 511.: "And after the round of one year had passed, St. Boniface commanded that he should come to him into Thuringia. And at once that venerable man of God St. Willibald … came … It was the autumnal season of the year when St. Willibald came into Thuringia. And at once, after he came there, St. Boniface the archbishop, and Burchard and Wizo consecrated him by ordaining him to the sacred authority of the episcopate. And when there he had then been enriched with the highest honour of the priestly mitre, he was there one week, and afterwards he returned again TO THE PLACE PREDESTINED FOR HIS DWELLING", namely to Eichstet. Whence there fall to the ground, that we may remark it in passing, the things which our Luidl devised in a separate dissertation on the year of the founding of the bishopric of Eichstätt [Grüdliche Erörterung der Frag: Ob das Bissthum Eichstätt in dem Jahr Christi 741 oder 745 gestifft und errichtet worden, in the work: Eichstättisches Heiligthum, p. 1 and following.] and which Crammer Heiliges, etc. Eichstädt, p. 23 and following., Seiters Bonifacius, etc. p. 341 and following. and Sax Versuch, etc. p. 7 and following. have most eagerly embraced, namely that St. Willibald was first from the year 741 a regionary bishop or without a fixed see, but that in the year 745 he was promoted to the see of Eichstätt, then first erected; both because, when he came to that region in the year 739, it was still wholly laid waste, so that there was no house there, except "that church of St. Mary," says the nun of Heidenheim Acta SS., vol. II of July, p. 511., "which still stands there, smaller than the other church which Blessed Willibald afterwards built there"; so that the place was not yet suitable for an episcopal chair; and because in the Pontifical Book of Eichstätt, which about the year 1071 Gundechar or Gunzo, bishop of that see, caused to be written, at the name of St. Willibald there is added: "He sat 36 years. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 781, on the Nones of July he died" In Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ, vol. VII, p. 243.; and because the same Gundechar ordered these or similar things to be inscribed on the altars Ibid., p. 246 and following.: "In the year from the incarnation of the Lord 1060, and in the year of the constitution of this bishopric 317," etc.; and that by Hermann the Lame, Marianus Scotus and the Annalist of Fulda the episcopal consecration of St. Willibald or the institution of the chair of Eichstätt is referred even to a year or two after 745 See these places in Falckenstein, vol. I, p. 12.. But all these documents are almost three centuries later than the contemporary testimony of the nun of Heidenheim; and then St. Zachary, who had understood from the priest Deneard that episcopal sees had been erected in places suitable indeed and adapted at some time to take in a great population, but as yet thinly peopled, had not in vain renewed in his letters the memory of the old canonical laws on this matter.

[26] [Since the ordination of St. Willibald falls on the 21st of October of the year 742, which was a Sunday, hence all things agree and it follows that St. Albinus was made bishop in the year 741,] But let us return from this digression to the nun of Heidenheim: "St. Willibald," she thus continues, "when he was consecrated to the episcopate, was forty-one years old. And it was then the autumnal season: about that very time, three weeks before the feast of St. Martin, he was consecrated to the episcopate in the place which is called Sallpurg." Now since the feast of St. Martin of Tours is celebrated on the 11th day of November, it follows that St. Willibald was raised to the episcopal dignity on the 21st day of October; but in the year 741, in which it is now reported by all that this was done, with dominical letter A, the 21st day of October coincided not with Sunday, prescribed for consecrating bishops, but with Saturday: on the other hand in the year 742, in which in fact St. Willibald was initiated bishop, as follows not only from this head, but also from the time of the conferring of the priesthood, with dominical letter G, the 21st day of October was a Sunday. Which law or custom of creating bishops on Sundays or the greater feasts was in force also in Germany, as Amalarius of Metz is a testimony De officiis ecclesiasticis, book II, chapter 2.. In actual fact it was sometimes departed from, as is discovered in the Life of St. Willehad, bishop of Bremen Cf. Acta SS., vol. IX of October, p. 378.; but this happened rarely and was held to be singular. All things therefore agree: at the end of the year 741 St. Boniface created St. Albinus bishop of Büraberg, St. Burchard bishop of Würzburg and a third, perhaps St. Adelar, bishop of Erfurt; some months later he sent the priest Deneard to Rome, to obtain from St. Zachary the confirmation of these three sees; the matter having been diligently and for a long time examined, the Roman pontiff consented and gave letters on the 1st day of April of the same year 743; Deneard therefore seems to have been absent at least ten months, namely from the summer of the year 742 to the spring of the year 743; and meanwhile on the 21st day of October of the year 742 St. Boniface together with SS. Albinus and Burchard imposed hands on St. Willibald and consecrated him bishop of Eichstätt; and finally in the year 743, on the 21st day of April, which was a Sunday, the letters of St. Zachary, too long delayed, having barely or not barely been received, he presided at the German council, at which there were present besides other bishops SS. Burchard, Witta or Albinus and Willibald; it follows thence also that the council of Lestinnes, assembled on the kalends of March, almost a whole year after the German council, is to be referred to the year 744 [Cf. Mansi in Observat. ad criticen Pagii super Baronium, at the year 743, note 1.], in which also the 1st day of March coincided with Sunday; and that some other deeds also of SS. Boniface, Willibald and their companions are to be deferred by one year: which indeed is what has moved us to dwell so long on those notes of time.

[27] [St. Albinus took part in the consecration of St. Willibald at Salzburg on the Franconian Saale;] It remains to be said what place Sallpurg is, where St. Albinus with St. Boniface and St. Burchard met in the autumn of the year 742 and imposed hands on St. Willibald. Concerning its site many divinations and conjectures were once proposed; of which I do not wish even to renew the memory, since Eckhart, who has explained so many other matters of Eastern Francia with no less felicity than erudition, has also accurately designated this fort. For one must not think of Salzburg, the episcopal city, which is much too far distant; nor of Salburg on the Thuringian Saale, situated below the town of Hof, since that region was then inhabited by Slavs

Sorbs, not yet subdued; but of Salzburg, founded on the Franconian Saale. This river, gliding into the Main at Gemünden in Franconia, rises above Königshofen in the district of Eastern Grabfeld, and after Königshofen flows past Neustadt, formerly called Salz, and opposite the fort of Salzburg, whose ruins in the last century still displayed their old magnificence, past Kissingen and Hammelburg. Beside Salzburg lay a huge forest, called Salzforst, and the whole region was so pleasant that on an island of the river a royal palace was built. But see on these matters Eckhart's observations in the Commentaries on Eastern Francia Vol. I, pp. 389 and 741., and much more his separate dissertation, published at Leipzig in the year 1751 Alte Saltzburg und das Pallast Saltz in Franken..

[28] likewise he took part in the German council, on the Some, among whom Eckhart, would have it that a council was then celebrated at Salzburg; but, unless one is pleased to call every assembly of bishops by this name, 21st day of April of the year 745 at the request of Carloman there is no reason why this gathering of bishops should be called a council. The first German council, therefore, is to be called that which, St. Albinus being present, was held on the XI of the kalends of May or the 21st day of April of the year (as we have demonstrated) 743 at an unknown place. (For that some say it was celebrated at Worms, others at Augsburg, others at Regensburg, others at Frankfurt, others elsewhere, are conjectures and dreams.) Its occasion and cause St. Boniface, writing in the year 742 to Pope St. Zachary, lays open in these words Bonifatian Letter, in Serarius, CXXXII, in Würdtwein, LI.: "Let it likewise be known to your paternity that Carloman, duke of the Franks, summoned me to him and asked that in the part of the kingdom of the Franks which is in his power I should cause a synod to be assembled: and he promised that he would correct and amend something concerning ecclesiastical religion, which now for a long time, that is, for not less than sixty or seventy years, has been trodden down and scattered. Wherefore if he wishes truly to fulfil this design, by God's inspiration, I ought both to have and to know the counsel and precept of your authority, that is, of the apostolic see. For the Franks, as the elders say, have held no synod for more than the space of eighty years: nor have they had an archbishop: nor have they founded or renewed for anyone the canonical rights of the church. But now for the most part throughout the cities the episcopal sees have been handed over to greedy laymen to possess, or to adulterous clerics, fornicators and publicans to enjoy." And the blessed man goes on to describe the depraved morals of clergy and people and to set out the lapse of the sacred canons.

[29] [and assembled with the approval of Pope St. Zachary on account of the long-standing evils and scandals:] St. Zachary approved the celebration of the council in the highest degree; but I have noted above that his replies to the doubts proposed seem to have arrived too late or at the last moment. There took part in the religious assembly not only bishops, abbots and clerics, but also magnates: so that it was a public assembly of the realm, with Carloman presiding; and not only ecclesiastical but also political authority was inherent in its laws. Its beginning has this form: "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I, Carloman, duke and prince of the Franks, (mayor of the palace of Austrasia,) in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord DCCXLII [I], namely on the XI of the kalends of May, with the counsel of the servants of God and of my magnates, have gathered the bishops who are in my realm, with the priests, to a council and synod for the fear of Christ, that is, Boniface the archbishop, and Burchard of Würzburg, and Regenfrid of Cologne, Wintan of Büraberg, and Witbald of Eichstätt, and Dadon of no fixed or known see, and Eddan of Strasbourg, and the remaining bishops, with their priests, that they might give me counsel how the law of God and ecclesiastical religion may be recovered, which in the days of past princes was scattered and fell, and how the Christian people may come to the salvation of the soul, and may not perish deceived by false priests." Of the decrees I shall relate only this, that a synod was appointed for each year, the rule of St. Benedict prescribed for all monasteries, and clerics freed from military service. The rest are concerned with removing the abuses of clergy and people.

[30] [likewise most probably at the council of the year 715; on the occasion of which he seems to have written with St. Boniface and other bishops a most weighty letter to the king of the Mercians.] It is not to be doubted that St. Albinus, or Witta and Wittanus, also took part in other councils; but since no certain knowledge of this matter survives, we leave it to the reader's judgment and conjectures, noting however that the opinion of Serarius Serarius and Joannis, Rerum Moguntinarum, vol. I, p. 300. and Eckhart Francia Orientalis, vol. I, p. 466. is very probable, that in place of Wera (which monster of a name is read at the head of the letter which St. Boniface with many other bishops gave before the year 747 to Ethibald, king of the Mercians, asking him to live more chastely and to defend monks and priests from the violence of the counts) one should read Witta; so that this is its opening Bonifatian Letter according to Serarius XIX, according to Würdtwein LXXII.: "To the lord most dear and to be preferred in the love of Christ to other kings, governing the renowned sceptre of the empire of the English, King Ethibald, Boniface, archbishop, German legate of the Roman church, and Witta (in place of Wera), of Büraberg, and Burckart, of Würzburg, and Warbeth or Hartbert, of Sens, and Abel, of Reims, and Wilibald, of Eichstätt, fellow bishops, the perennial salvation of charity in Christ." Which letter, written by eight bishops who had come together for one synod, is most certainly earlier than the year 747, in which Herefrid the priest, who was asked to deliver it to the king, died; and so, as Eckhart judges Francia Orientalis, vol. I, p. 466., it was sent in the year 745, in which the council was celebrated in which Aldebert and Clement were condemned on a charge of heresy, and Gewilib, bishop of Mainz, guilty of homicide and other crimes, was deposed from his rank. It must be remarked, however, that concerning the time of all the councils which St. Boniface celebrated there are the most diverse opinions; a list of which Hartzheim has attempted to set before the eyes Concilia Germaniæ, vol. I, p. 342 and following.. Nor will anyone easily end this dispute, if you except the first German council, which I think I have demonstrated above to have met in the year 743.

[31] [In the year 774, when the Saxons were pressing on Fritzlar and also attempting Büraberg,] In the following years St. Albinus saw his diocese almost continually exposed to the plundering and devastation of the neighbouring Saxons Hartmann, Historia hassiaca, vol. I, p. 47 and following.; and indeed in the year 774 they came very close to Büraberg. For when in the previous year Bl. Charlemagne had set out into Italy, they, as though having found an opportunity in the king's absence, ravaged with sword and fire the Hessian borders adjacent to them. That is to say, as Einhard expresses it in the Annals of Lorsch In Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ, vol. I, p. 152., "the Saxons went out with a great army against the borders of the Franks, and came as far as the fort which is called Buriaburg; but the borderers themselves, anxious on this account, when they saw this, entered the fort. While therefore that people of the Saxons had begun in their rage to burn with fire the houses outside, they came to a certain basilica in the place which is called Fricdislar; which Boniface of holy memory, the most recent martyr, consecrated, and through the spirit of prophecy foretold that it would never be burned by fire. And the same aforesaid Saxons began to struggle against the same basilica with excessive effort, how by any device they might burn it with fire. While these things were being done, therefore, there appeared to certain Christians who were in the fort, and likewise to certain pagans who were in that army, two young men in white, who were protecting that basilica from the fire, and for that reason they could not there kindle fire either within or without, nor inflict any damage on that same basilica; but by the nod of the divine majesty, struck with dread, they were turned to flight, with no one pursuing. And afterwards one of those same Saxons was found dead beside that basilica, with bent knees, leaning over his feet, having fire and wood in his hands, as though by blowing with his mouth he had wished to give that same basilica to the fire." And the same things, but for the most part much more briefly, are narrated by many other chronographers; but it would be in vain for me to adduce them, since Einhard has gone before them with his light.

[32] [St. Albinus translates the body of St. Wigbert, abbot of Fritzlar and once his companion, to the fort of Büraberg.] On the other hand Bl. Servatus Lupus, who, when he was staying at Fulda for the sake of his studies, wrote the life of St. Wigbert, abbot of Fritzlar, follows out the same matter much more widely; and so he intimates that there was not then only one irruption of the Saxons, nor one attempt to plunder or burn the church of St. Peter; wherefore room was not lacking for the translations which are attributed to St. Megingaud, abbot, as will appear below. And since blessed Wigbert lived in company with St. Albinus, exercised the sacred ministry under him as bishop and was at length translated by him to Hersfeld, it will be helpful to review his affairs in a few words Sæculum Benedictinum III, part I, p. 673 and following.. St. Wigbert therefore, a monk and priest in England, was summoned by St. Boniface to aid in preaching and a little after the year 732 was placed over the monastery of Fritzlar, to restrain the lax conversation of the brethren to the norm of his own life. When he had discharged this province for some time, he was sent to the monastery of Ordorf with the same end. But, broken by old age and disease, some years afterwards he obtained by prayers that he might return to Fritzlar; where by the frequency of his fasts he easily shone out. "And this," says Bl. Lupus (whence you may learn that the blessed man was engaged in the sacred ministry), "this was always the solemn custom of that Wigbert, that when, asked by one of the faithful, he went to hear confession, … he did not rashly enter into conversation with anyone; … and if anywhere he came upon an assembly of men who needed salutary counsels, at once, putting aside temporal things, he brought into the midst those things which conduce to the perpetual salvation of the soul… And Blessed Wigbert persevered in the aforesaid monastery, ministering to the divine precepts; …" he died in the year 747. When therefore in the year 774 the Saxons had burst into those parts, the inhabitants of Fritzlar fled with the relics of the holy man to Büraberg across the Adrana, and from the walls of Büraberg bravely repelled all the Saxon machinations against the fortifications; indeed, making a sortie, they wrought a great slaughter. Nevertheless they could not prevent them, four years later, when they had laid everything waste as far as the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle, from returning through Hesse; where however, near Lihesi, at the ford of the Adarna, they were overtaken by the Franks coming up and were slain in great number [Cf. Annales Laurissenses of Einhard at the year 778, in Pertz, Scriptores, vol. I, pp. 158 and 159.]. There was therefore no sure quiet and security there for the body of St. Wigbert. For the rest, after into the town (thus Bl. Servatus Lupus calls Büraberg

to distinguish it from the monastery of Fritzlar) his bones had been moved; as the most precious ointment, when it is stirred, spreads most pleasing odours far and wide, so the relics of this man, being moved, breathed abundantly the fragrance of miracles… But after some years had intervened, to Albuin, bishop of the same town of Fritzlar (see how Büraberg is called the town of Fritzlar, as of old many coastal towns were called the ports of neighbouring cities, and fortifications outside the compass of cities the camps and forts of those cities), but to Albuin in his rest someone is seen, who said that he had been sent from God to the monastery which is called Herolfesfeldt" or Hirsfeldt in Hesse on the river Fulda: "whither also he commanded the bones of the blessed man to be transferred. The said bishop revealed this to Lullus, bishop of the church of Mainz; and he brought the matter to Charlemagne and at once obtained his assent. So, at the command of Lullus, his suffragan Albuin handed over by night the sacred ashes of Blessed Wigbert to three monks of the aforesaid monastery, namely Ernust, Baturic, who afterwards seems to have ascended the chair of Regensburg, and Wolf, to be secretly carried to the monastery. For indeed he feared to do it by day, lest the people, bound by love of so great a man, should harass the said brethren in a blind sedition, or assail them with any injuries; and, superior in strength, should claim for themselves the privilege of so remarkable a treasure… The aforesaid brethren therefore swiftly brought the most ample gift delivered to them by the bishop into the monastery of Herolfesfeldt; and, received there by the other servants of God, it was at first magnificently laid up in the church." The same things are narrated in the Life of St. Lullus Acta SS., vol. VII of October, p. 1089., except that this saint, who very greatly promoted the growth of the monastery of Hersfeld, is said to have been warned three times by an angelic voice, and to have directed the whole affair; then Büraberg is there called Buriburc. This translation Mabillon supposed to have been made about the year 780 Annales Benedictini, book XXV, num. 12, vol. II, p. 238.; not improbably.

[33] [While on a journey with St. Lullus the archbishop, St. Albinus dies suddenly after Mass] From the same Life of St. Lullus we understand the time and manner of the most happy death of St. Albinus. "He had with him," says the biographer Acta SS., vol. VII of October, p. 1090., "a man of exceptional (as is believed) sanctity, by name Albewin, accustomed to carry out the business of the episcopal office after the bishop, whom by the common appellation they call a chorepiscopus; and he used him in divine matters both privately and publicly as a helper and suffragan." (From all these things that we have seen, above all from the letters of St. Zachary, it is most manifest that St. Albinus was not a chorepiscopus; but since the chair of Büraberg no longer existed and was enclosed in the diocese of Mainz when the biographer wrote, he was led by ignorance of these matters to change the blessed man into a chorepiscopus.) "Having summoned him to himself: 'I have come upon a cause,' he said, 'which requires me to hasten my journey to the monastery of Hersfeld: let it be your office, having first celebrated the solemnities of Mass, to go before me who will follow at once, and to provide what may be for the reception of me and those coming with me.' He, impatient of delay, took up the orders more swiftly; he arranged what would be of use to those setting out. He celebrated Mass, wholly ignorant of what was being built up by such a device; and when, still sound in body, he had partaken of the Lord's sacraments, he suddenly breathed out his spirit; for in the same moment he ended both his life and the Mass. The archbishop, in no way moved by the miracle of so great a thing, but embracing with most ready favour the diligent forerunner of his own death, ordered him to be placed on a ship and, being carried down by the Rhine" (rather the Main or Moganus) "with the stream, to be put out at the place which is called Hohstedi" (now Höchst, midway between Frankfurt and Mainz), that the Mass of the dead might be celebrated there and the body of St. Albinus might then be transferred by a land journey to Hersfeld. "Where" (namely at Hochstedi), "when the people had come together in numbers from the whole diocese for the office of the funeral, he was magnificently received, and was translated by land to the monastery of Hersfeld. Nor did he lack any display of funeral honours:

Whatever honour of a tomb, whatever solace of burial there is;

a solid faith being spread among all that his merits are of great moment with God. But Blessed Lullus hastened to the monastery of Hersfeld in the same order as he had arranged; where, at once touched by disease, when he was in the thirty-second year of his ordination, on the seventeenth of the kalends of November, having passed through a most honourable death, he yielded to nature, and, following his forerunner by the right path, he was numbered among the senators of the heavenly court."

[34] in the year 786 some days before the 16th of October. He was buried at Hersfeld. That St. Lullus died in the year 786 one of my colleagues demonstrated at the 16th day of October Ibid. p. 1078 and following., and indeed on this very 16th day of October: whence it follows that the feast of St. Albinus is not kept on the day of his death, since he died some days before. Wherefore, that his feast is kept on the 26th day of October has come about either on account of an elevation of the body or for some other less known cause: I indeed can determine nothing, since Lambert in that part of the Annals of Hersfeld which has so far been edited [Pistorius, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, vol. I, p. 301 and following; Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ, vol. V, p. 134 and following.] makes no word of mention of St. Albinus or Witta; nor have other monuments of antiquity concerning this monastery, which from the beginnings of the Lutheran disturbances passed into the hands of Protestants, come forth in public. Bucelin, reviewing the glories of this hermitage: "Buried there," he says Germania sacra, part II, p. 44., "BB. Albuin and Lullus moreover brought a great name to the place." Nevertheless I should not think that Bucelin meant by these words that the body was elevated and preserved in a separate shrine: for nowhere has a recorded memory of this matter met me; and, what is chief, Brower has published Antiquitates Fuldeuses, book II, chapter 12, pp. 153 and 154. an old index of the bodies of the saints which the church of Hersfeld once held in its bosom; and among these the body or bones of St. Albinus or Witta are not reviewed. And these things I have been able, in whatever way, to gather concerning the blessed man, grieving however that I have obtained no copy of the former Breviary of Hersfeld or of Fritzlar. Gladly and willingly I have omitted the Life which was written by Antonio de Heredia in the Lives of the saints of the Order of St. Benedict; for it has been fashioned partly from one or another letter of St. Boniface, wonderfully amplified; partly from the Rule and the old customs of the Benedictines, which the holy man is to be judged to have kept; partly, finally, from the dreams of a man with time on his hands: so that the composition is not worthy even of a youngster.

§ V. St. Megingaud, successor of St. Albinus. Not to be confused with Megingaud, bishop of Würzburg. His former offices in the monastery of Fritzlar. St. Humbert, deacon of Fritzlar. The end of Büraberg.

[St. Albinus was succeeded by St. Megingaud, a deacon, who in the monastery of Fritzlar in the time of St. Wigbert] That St. Megingaud, who is also Meingot or Meyngot, Megingoz, Mengoz, Megingus and in a more corrupt form Meginbod, was the successor of St. Albinus at Büraberg is the opinion of many; which I for my part suppose to be true. For in the martyrology of the abbey or chapter of Fritzlar, which gave light to Schmincke, at the XVII of the kalends of April or the 17th day of March there is read [Antiquitates Fritislarienses, §38, p. 42; de Episcopatu Buriburgensi, §23, p. 19, in Serarius and Joannis, Rerum Moguntinarum, vol. I, p. 313.]: "Meyngot, bishop of this very place," that is, of Fritzlar or Büraberg. Of whom these few deeds have become known. First in the monastery of Fritzlar he lent his service to St. Wigbert the abbot, in order to order there the norm and state of the monastic religion. For, as Bl. Servatus Lupus expresses it Life of St. Wigbert, chapter V, Sæc. Bened. III, part I, p. 675., St. Wigbert there "with his Megingus, who afterwards rose to the episcopal summit, lived for a long time, and restrained the formerly lax and fluid conversation of the brethren to the norm of his own life, who beyond doubt was ruled by the authority of the holy Scriptures." When St. Megingaud had excellently discharged this office, St. Boniface wished him to go on fulfilling it after the death of the most holy abbot with another Wigbert, a priest; and then St. Megingaud had been raised to the honour of the diaconate: all which are manifest from the letter which St. Boniface in the year 747, a little after the death of St. Wigbert, abbot of Fritzlar, gave to the monks of this hermitage and from which it is plain that he reserved to himself great authority over the monastery, although St. Albinus ruled the diocese by ordinary right.

[36] [and also after his death by order of St. Boniface he was master of the rule, of chant and of the boys.] Since this letter is brief, it seems that it should be published in this place Bonifatian Letter in Serarius XVII, in Würdtwein LXXIX.: "To his dearest sons Tatwin and Wighbert, priests, Bernhard and Hiedde, Hunfrith and Stirme, Boniface, servant of the servants of God, perennial salvation in the Lord. With a father's love I beseech your affection that you study to keep the norm of the monastic life with all the greater care, because your father Wighbert has died. Let Wighbert the priest and Mengingord the deacon instil your rule into you, and keep the special hours and the course of the church, and admonish the others, and be masters of the children, and preach the word of God to the brethren. Let Hiedde be prior and admonish your servants; and let Hunfrid help him, wherever there is need; let Stirme be in the kitchen; let Bernard be a workman and build your little houses, where there is need; and concerning all things, wherever you have necessity, let him instruct you. Ask Abbot Tatwin; and whatever he instructs you, do this; and let each one study according to his strength and his own character to preserve himself in chastity, and in the common life to help one another, and to remain in brotherly charity, until the presence of our return in the will of God. And now together praising the Lord let us give him thanks in all things. Fare well in Christ." St. Megingaud therefore was ordered to instil their rule into the monks, namely the Benedictine one, which alone was prescribed by the fathers of the German council in the year 743: "We have decreed also," they say In Würdtwein, Epist. S. Bonifacii, p. 123., "that monks and handmaids of God of the monasteries should study to order, govern and live in their monasteries or hospices according to the rule of St. Benedict; and that they should not neglect to spend their own life according to the ordinance of the aforesaid father." St. Megingaud had to teach the special hours and the course of the church, or the monastic office; which thing, since the psalms and some other parts were sung by the monks mostly from memory, and since moreover the novices had to be exercised in music, was much more laborious than appears at first sight; to him also, as to the priest Wigbert (for there had to be two masters of the children), was committed the care of the oblate boys: which, since it was assiduous and embraced instruction in letters, was truly burdensome Cf. Martène, de Antiquis monachorum ritibus, p. 703 and following.. Finally he was commanded

to preach the word of God to the brethren, namely in chapter, in place of the explanation of the rule or the reading of a homily, to be done daily after Prime or Terce by the prior or by whomever he should order Cf. ibid. p. 60..

[37] [They would have it also that he was abbot; which assertion the translation of St. Wigbert, ascribed to him, would favour.] And in these things they would have it that the blessed man so satisfied his people, that after the death of Abbot Tatwin, who succeeded St. Wigbert, he himself was created abbot of Fritzlar: which however I would dare neither to affirm nor to deny. For this opinion rests on the sayings of Trithemius, from which error is most certainly not absent. For in book III of On the Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, in which (as we have remarked above) he included only those whom he well knew to enjoy ecclesiastical cult, chapter CCLXI, he speaks in these words Opera pia et spiritualia, p. 104, Busæus edition.: "Of St. Meginbod the abbot. Meginbod, a monk of Fritzlar and abbot at Burbach of Mainz, a learned and holy man, who by his holy exhortations and examples called back many to the way of good conversation, is said to have adorned the discipline of the cloister with great virtues. And his feast is kept on the XVII of the kalends of April." But since in his time no memory any longer survived of the see of Büraberg (which he everywhere calls Burbach) and the place was contained in the diocese of Mainz, he seems for that reason to have substituted abbot for bishop; and so he ought to have said: "Meginbod," or rather Megingod, "a monk of Fritzlar and bishop at Büraberg." From this head, therefore, all testimony seems to fail. But another exists elsewhere, which indeed is obscure to me, yet much firmer. Namely, three translations of St. Wigbert are to be distinguished; of which one is recorded in a manuscript codex of Fritzlar Now in the library of Kassel, in Falckenheiner, vol. I, p. 74, note 3. on the VII of the Ides of February, which may be either the first elevation of the body, or the flight of the relics from Fritzlar to Büraberg; the second occurs in the Necrology of Fritzlar [Schmincke, Antiquitates Fritisl. §28, p. 29, in Falckenheiner, vol. I, p. 75, notes 5 and 6.] at the 15th day of May, where it is added that it was accomplished by Megingaud and that the body was brought from Büraberg to Fritzlar; finally the third, solemnly celebrated at Hersfeld by St. Lullus, on the occasion of which the feast of the blessed man is still kept yearly on the Ides or the 13th day of August [Cf. Life of St. Wigbert, chapter 25, Sæculum Bened. part I, p. 681; Acta SS., vol. III of August, p. 133.]. Since therefore those three translations were made in the time of the episcopate of St. Albinus, it seems that St. Megingaud could have presided over the second, so as to be said to have made it, by no other title than that of abbot. But I grieve that the very words of the Necrology do not give me light, nor do they become known to me from Schmincke himself, but only from Falckenheiner.

[38] St. Megingaud was bishop not of Würzburg, but of Büraberg: However that may be, when St. Albinus died in the year 786, St. Megingaud succeeded him; as is certain from the martyrology of Fritzlar cited above. To which is added, and adds new credibility, the Life of St. Wigbert, in which (as we have seen above) the deacon Megingus, that is, our Megingaud, who lent his labour to St. Wigbert in reforming the monastery of Fritzlar, is said to have afterwards risen to the episcopal summit. Which words many writers, and those most excellent, have wished to draw to the view that St. Megingaud was bishop of Würzburg. The first to rise against this opinion was Eckhart Francia orientalis, vol. I, pp. 481, 525 and 577., distinguishing two Megingauds; one who, as we have already understood, in the year 747, a little after the death of St. Wigbert the abbot, was a deacon of Fritzlar, and another who in the month of March of the same year was a priest; for to the charter on the boundaries of the monastery of Fulda, which St. Boniface then wrote, there is read appended at the end the sign of Megingoz the priest Among the Bonifatian Letters in Würdtwein LXVI.; who Eckhart affirms was a priest of Würzburg Francia Orientalis. vol. I, p. 525., by a less firm argument, namely that he had come as a comrade and companion with St. Burchard, who also subscribed. Moreover the same writer contends Ibid. p. 577. that Megingaud, who about the year 752 was created bishop of Würzburg by St. Boniface, was never a monk, as the deacon of Fritzlar was, since the regular bishops who took part in the assembly of Attigny in the year (as it seems) 765 subscribed in this manner Ibid. p. 576.: "Willibald, bishop of the monastery of Aichstad"; but the secular ones (let there be pardon for those more recent words): "Megingoz, bishop of the city of Wirziaburg." But it seems that this is not so; for, to use the nearest example, St. Lullus, who was a monk from earliest boyhood, is read there: "Lullo, bishop of the city of Mainz": nor is there any force in the word monastery; for then all churches, above all if they were splendid or ample, were called monasteries.

[39] the Megingaud of Würzburg is another. Let this then be certain, that there were in those parts in the year 747 two Megingauds, one a deacon, the other a priest; and then two bishops of this name, one of Büraberg or Fritzlar, and indeed this very deacon, the other of Würzburg, who about the beginning of October of the year 785 laid down his office and on the VI of the kalends of October of the year 794, as Eckhart reports in the Chronicle of Würzburg In Pertz, Monumenta, vol. VI, p. 27., and of the year 799 (unless there is a typographical blunder, IV changed into IX), as Eckhart has it Francia Orientalis, vol. I, p. 710.. And since our predecessors confused the two with each other, and Megingaud of Würzburg was by no means venerated in his church with ecclesiastical honours (Eckhart indeed at the end calls him blessed Megingaud, but in the sense of good memory: from which appellation moreover Æmilian Ussermann abstains Episcopatus Wirceburgensis sub metropoli Moguntina, vol. I, p. 9 and following., who afterwards set forth the affairs of the bishopric of Würzburg), but on account of this confusion our predecessors placed St. Megingaud, bishop of Büraberg, at the 16th day of March among the passed over Acta SS., vol. II of March, p. 416.; since this confusion has long since been removed, the authority of Trithemius is to be embraced, affirming that in his time his feast was kept on the XVII of the kalends of April; with which agrees the martyrology of Fritzlar which we have brought forward above. Deservedly therefore Wion, Ménard, Dorgainus and other Benedictines and martyrologists or menologists have celebrated his memory at the 16th of March.

[40] Whether his letter to St. Lullus exists; whether he himself came from England. Other acts of St. Megingaud we do not know. Most would have it that he, after he was elected bishop, did not lay down the abbatial staff of Fritzlar; which seems to rest only on the words of Trithemius, which we have corrected above: so that it is scarcely credible to us. Although he was learned and a master of others, it is plainly uncertain whether any of his writings still survive. Among the letters of St. Boniface there come at number LXXX in Serarius, and at number CXI in Würdtwein, a letter with this inscription: "To the lord in Christ most greatly to be revered, Lullus the bishop, Magingaoz, a suppliant, the desirable salvation of everlasting blessedness in the Lord"; in which he asks the blessed man to be pleased to provide for the little monastery, which on account of the approaching death of the abbess, his sister, will easily be dissolved, unless a new abbess is at hand in good time; since his brother's daughters, veiled there, from among whom some would wish to choose a superior, are too young in years and mind for this office and for the need of the times. This letter is pious, by no means savouring of flesh and blood and plainly worthy of Megingaud the deacon, who at Fritzlar taught others the ways of salvation; but since Megingaud the priest and perhaps others of the same name then lived, it cannot be determined by whom it was written. And I should say the same of another letter, marked by Serarius number LXXXVII, by Würdtwein number XC, with this inscription: "To the magnificent priest of Christ, to be embraced with reverence and love alike, Lullus the bishop, Magingoz, servant of the servants of God, perennial salvation in the Lord": in which the question is asked of the dissolution of marriage on account of adultery. It is much more likely, however, that these letters are those of Megingaud, bishop of Würzburg, who seems to have dealt familiarly with St. Lullus: certainly Willibald the priest inscribed the Life of St. Boniface "To the holy lords and truly dearest in Christ, Lullus and Megingoz, fellow bishops" Acta SS., vol. I of June, p. 460., and wished it to be corrected by them, before it came to light [Acta SS., vol. I of June, p. 476. Cf. Mabillon, Sæculum Bened. III, part, II, p. 27.]. Whether finally he is different from Memgoz, or rather Meingoz, who by the anonymous biographer of St. Boniface of Münster Ibid., p. 482. is reported with many others to have come into Germany for the sake of preaching, is at first sight doubtful; but from St. Ludger, biographer Ibid., p. 486. of St. Gregory, the disciple and companion of St. Boniface, it is manifest that Memingaud, bishop of Würzburg, is there designated. Why can it not at least be investigated in what year St. Meningaud closed his life? But I have found that not even conjectures have been made about it.

[41] The memory of St. Humbert, prior of Fritzlar. In all the martyrologies and menologies in which the memory of SS. Albinus and Megingaud is celebrated, there is praised also at the 7th day of October St. Humbert, monk and prior of Fritzlar, Trithemius again going before. He namely in book III of On the Illustrious Men of St. Benedict, in which (as I have already twice noted) he would have none included who lacked ecclesiastical cult, chapter CCLXXI, has put forth these things concerning St. Humbert the monk Opp. pia, p. 106, Busæus edition.: "Humbert, monk and prior of the monastery at Burbach near the town of Fritzlar, a holy and learned man, and a zealous lover of regular discipline, greatly pleased God by his most holy conversation; whose feast is kept on the Nones of October." Where Trithemius falls into his usual error, interchanging Burbach, or rather Büraberg, with Fritzlar. Why is not the old martyrology of Fritzlar at some time published, which Schmincke once used and on which the names of SS. Albinus, Megingaud and Humbert cannot but be inscribed? Why do not at some time the calendars of other monasteries of those parts come to light, which very probably contain other saints, since it is manifest that the Spirit of the Lord was with St. Boniface and his disciples and everywhere brought the fruits of holiness to ripeness? Meanwhile nothing remains but to stand by Trithemius, who saw and used books which the Lutheran seditions destroyed or scattered.

[42] The fortunes and end of Büraberg: But since in this commentary I have been lengthy in setting out the origins of the diocese of Büraberg, it is a pleasure to add a few things on its end; although (as I have often noted) Schmincke's dissertation is lacking to me and Falckenheiner will be almost my only guide. That the episcopal chair of Büraberg therefore did not long subsist, and so was transferred to Fritzlar by St. Albinus himself, is the opinion of

Schmincke [In Falckenheiner, vol. I, p. 16, and in Serarius and Joannis, Rer. Mogunt. vol. I, pp. 313 and 314.], both because Bl. Servatus Lupus calls St. Albinus the prelate of the town of Fritzlar, and because at Fritzlar there still survives a place called the episcopal court (Bischofshof) and the episcopal street (Bischofsgasse): but neither reason has great moment for persuasion: for (as we have seen above) Bl. Servatus Lupus calls Büraberg itself the town of Fritzlar; and the names Bischofshof and Bischofsgasse much more probably arose from the house of the archbishop of Mainz than from the dwellings of SS. Albinus and Megingaud. After these holy prelates no one is found who was bishop of Büraberg or Fritzlar: of which thing I suppose there was not one cause only. First of all it is nowhere read that any endowment was assigned to the new see; whereas on the contrary the other episcopal sees erected by St. Boniface did not lack estates from the beginning and gradually became very rich. It was natural therefore that, if any cause arose, the see of Büraberg should perish and its diocese be joined to the neighbouring metropolis of Mainz. And on the other hand the town of Büraberg could not continue, as soon as the Saxons had been subdued by Charlemagne and had embraced the Christian faith. For the place was plainly rocky, using water carried up or diligently collected in a cistern; which place would never have been inhabited, had it not seemed a necessary bulwark against the onset of enemies breaking in. When therefore there was no longer any fear of the Saxons, it could not but happen that the rustics who inhabited it should descend into the very fertile neighbouring region and create new villages, and above all increase the number of the people of Fritzlar. But as Büraberg lost a part of its inhabitants, a new cause arose, not indeed a necessary one, yet powerful and effective, that the new chair should perish at the same time. Gradually therefore the inhabitants deserted the town, so that at the beginning of the XIV century there survived only the church, the house of the parish priest and of the sacristan, and some small buildings adjoining; of which not even this memory would survive, had not from the year 1311 to the year 1314 a dispute about Büraberg blazed up between Henry, count of Waldeck, and Otto, Landgrave of Hesse: in which dispute the abbot of Fulda also was mixed up. The parish priest himself in the year 1323 was compelled to leave his ruinous and plainly solitary house and to buy another at Fritzlar. Which change paved the way for Henry III, who from the year 1328 to 1353 occupied the see of Mainz, to unite the parish of Büraberg with the prebend of the scholaster of Fritzlar, imposing however the burden of instituting a perpetual vicar, certain and not small revenues being assigned to him. The division of the goods, approved by Archbishop Henry in the year 1344, Falckenheiner will give. Yet until the Thirty Years' War the church persisted, at first under the title of St. Brigid alone, and from the year 1338 named at the same time after St. Boniface and afterwards after St. Wigbert; indeed it was also the mother church of the villages of Holzheim, Braunau, Menzigerode, Weiga and Mandern; to which were afterwards added Ungedanken and Nothelmshausen, formerly rustic estates; at Holzheim alone there was a chapel. And when in the Thirty Years' War the Protestants had destroyed the crumbling Catholic church of Büraberg, the parish was moved to Ungedanken. Pious men afterwards built on the mountain a small oratory, altogether unworthy of so holy a place. In the year 1737, moreover, the canons of Fritzlar instituted a yearly supplication or procession; which in these last years had not yet ceased: some money also being contributed that divine worship might be restored there. To the east are seen some remains of the old walls; and nothing else survives of the town watered by the sweat of SS. Boniface, Gregory, Albinus or Witta and Megingaud.