ON ST. ERMELINDE, VIRGIN, IN BELGIAN BRABANT,
AT THE END OF THE 6TH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Ermelinde, virgin, at Meldert in Brabant. (S.)
BY R. D. B.
§ I. The origins of Meldert. The biographers of St. Ermelinde, her age, her birth.
Meldert, distinguished by the dwelling and cult of St. Ermelinde, is a not small rural parish near Tienen in Belgian Brabant, Meldert in Belgian Brabant, inhabited from the remotest antiquity; unless the name, which is Celtic and thus very ancient, deceives. For the word Meldi among the Celts was not rare. By it a very well-known Gallic city was called, and there are also several places in Belgium called Melden. And rad, or rather rath*, is still today among the Irish a fortress, dwelling, colony, court, mound heaped up by hand. It was formerly under the dominion of the kings of Austrasia, then of the dukes of Lorraine. It was comprised within the borders of the county of Brunengeruz; with which in the 10th century it came under the power of the bishops of Liège, and at length in the 12th century under that of the dukes of Brabant [Moulaert, Essai sur le comte de Brunengeruz, Commission royale d'histoire, Bulletins, 2nd series, vol. X, p. 166 and following.]. Yet in the 14th century the duke of Brabant had not a few feudal lands at Meldert Galesloot, Le livre des Feudataires de Jean III, duc de Brabant, pp. 25, 33 etc.; and, when about the year 1588 the most noble family d'Oyenbrugge held its lordship, it began to be called a barony Suite du Supplément au Nobilaire des Pays-Bas, years 1630–1661, p. 161.. Meldert also lay formerly within the limits of the diocese of Liège, and it took its place among the parishes of the archpresbyterate of Tienen; as is established from the testimony of the abbots of Averbode and Heylissem, given in the year 1236, and also from three manuscript polyptychs of the diocese of Liège: of which the first, drawn up in the year 1441, is preserved in the royal archive at Brussels; the second, twenty years later, exists in the Premonstratensian abbey of Park near Louvain; the third finally, which is shut up in the royal archive at Liège and was written in the year 1558, has recently been published by the learned man Charles De Ridder, presbyter of Brussels. But when in the year 1560 the number of bishoprics in Belgium was increased by Paul IV, Meldert was assigned to the new diocese of Mechelen; and likewise, when in the year 1801 a new circumscription of the dioceses of all the Gauls was made by Pius VII, the parish of Meldert was again subjected perpetually to the archbishop of Mechelen.
[2] [The appellations of which place have been somewhat various, distinguished by the dwelling and cult of St. Ermelinde.] Nor at all times did this parish have the same appellation. Meldradium occurs in a historical monument of the 9th century, namely in the translation of SS. Marcellinus and Peter written by Einhard Acta SS. vol. I of June, p. 203., who flourished in the times of Charlemagne, whose deeds he afterwards recorded. Which form of the name, as being by far the most ancient, we too shall retain. In the letter which Othelbold, abbot of the monastery of St. Bavo of Ghent, gave about the year 1030 to Otgiva, wife of Baldwin the Bearded, count of Flanders, it is called Meldrada. Further it is called Meldrices (as if Meld-rice, an indicated region), both in the testimony which the abbots of Averbode and Heylissem gave of the recognized relics of St. Ermelinde, and in the Life of St. Ermelinde, written at Utrecht in the 15th century. And in the very ancient Life of St. Ermelinde and in the Martyrology of St. James, which Molanus in the augmented Usuard said was written in the year 1364, and in other more recent monuments it is called the villa Meldricis; the celebrity of which villa could not but grow after the discovery of the body of the most holy virgin and the building of an oratory, in whose vicinity there soon after arose in honour of the same heavenly one a greater sacred building, which also was to be parochial. Insula Meldricis is another name, which occurs in Molanus's Natales of the saints of Belgium and in the Indiculus of the saints of Belgium; which name arose from the fact that the villa is situated between two streams, of which the one has the same appellation as the valley Geyendelle, the other from a water-mill is called Molenbeek, and which nearby come together into one: because St. Ermelinde had fixed her seat on this island, some venerability accrued to it. Ghesquière in volume II of the Acta SS. Belgii also produces Meldrishem; which, since it is as it were the same as Villa Meldrices (Meldrices-heim), I should not dare to condemn, although I miss ancient authority for it. But in the 16th century it was called in Dutch Meldaert (whence Molanus in the Natales of the saints of Belgium P. 233., Sanderus in the Chorography of Brabant Averbodium, vol. I, p. 297., and Wastelain fashioned Meldaria), as Surius testifies in his notes on the Life of St. Ermelinde, and Rotarius, archpriest of Tienen, in the recognition of the relics of St. Ermelinde: but now its vernacular name is, the force of the accent growing with detriment to the following syllable, Meldert, met with in a diploma of the year 1333 Chotin, Etudes étymologiques sur les noms des villes etc. du Brabant, p. 153.. This form of the name also appears in the Book of Fiefs of John III, which book was drawn up about the year 1312 and recently published by the diligent man Galesloot Le livre des feudataires de Jean III, pp. 25, 33, 87 and following.; likewise in the three polyptychs of the diocese of Liège which we cited above; although many inhabitants still, all Germanic, still pronounce Mellaert in the old manner. In French already
long since it is called Maillard; in a diploma of the year 1287 written Mayard Ibid., cited page.. Mehan, which Ghesquière brings forward as a French name Acta SS. Belgii, vol. II, p. 217., appears to lack all authority.
[3] [The codices of the Life of St. Ermelinde can be divided into two classes, the Utrecht and the Belgian,] We have before our eyes three ancient manuscript Lives of St. Ermelinde: of which one formerly belonged to the library of St. Jerome at Utrecht; another to the monastery of Korsendonk in the tract of Antwerp, scarcely different from the former; and the third to the monastery of Bethlehem near Louvain. To which are to be added copies of a manuscript codex of St. Saviour's at Utrecht, and of another of Korsendonk, and also the legend of St. Ermelinde, formerly accustomed to be used by the clerics of Meldert. Then in another copy Gerard Dyestratius of Antwerp testifies that he wrote it in the year of the Lord 1602, on the 28th of October, in the convent of Tienen of the Order of Carmelites; indeed he adds that it is held in a very ancient manuscript codex of the church of Utrecht, of the year 636. All these historical monuments, except the manuscript copies of Korsendonk and Louvain, formerly belonged to our predecessors, but are now preserved in the Royal Library of Brussels. Of the copies there will scarcely be need to speak hereafter, both because the Utrecht one of St. Saviour's and that of Dyestratius agree wholly with the Utrecht one of St. Jerome, and the Korsendonk with the Louvain one, and because the Meldert legend is taken almost entirely from the Louvain manuscript. The codex of St. Jerome's at Utrecht is later than the year 1474, since this house, which in the year 1586 passed to the Calvinists [Hist. episcop. Fœderati Belgii, vol. I, p. 99; Historie van het Utrehtsche bisdom, vol. I, p. 723.], was erected only in that year: add that the writing itself indicates the end of the 15th century. Nor is the Korsendonk codex older, as the form of the letters testifies. The Louvain codex likewise appears to have been written at the end of the 15th century, probably from the Korsendonk one. For they agree among themselves; and further a singular intercourse existed between the Louvain Bethlehem monastery of canons regular and Korsendonk, from which the former had come forth at the beginning of the 15th century.
[4] The former purer, the latter with vulgar additions All these copies can be divided into two classes; of which I should call the former the Utrecht, the latter the Belgian. The former, enlarged; which however nearly all the more recent biographers have followed. containing the codices of St. Jerome and St. Saviour with the Dycstratian copy, is far purer; and it comes very near to the copy which Surius published, and which he testifies that he took from a very ancient codex of Utrecht: for scarcely any difference is detected between them. The Belgian class, to which the remaining transcripts are to be attributed, has indeed the same origin (for the expressions and several passages are the same as in the Utrecht class); but there have been inserted in it some additions, which have more of wonder than of likelihood. Yet very nearly all the more recent biographers (for there are to be excepted only the author of the old Chronicle of Brabant Die alderexcellenste cronycke van Brabant, chapter VIII. and the venerable man Pierre François De Ram [Vies des saints of Butler and Godescard, in the Louvain and Brussels edition, at 29 Oct.], who followed in the footsteps of Ghesquière in the Acta sanctorum Belgii) have admitted the narratives of the Belgian class. And since those writers must be listed somewhere, it pleases me to name them in this place. They are Lippeloo Vitæ SS. vol. IV, p. 337., Molanus [Natales SS. Belgii, p. 233; Indiculus SS. Belgii, after the Martyrology of Usuard.], Gazet [Histoire de la vie, mort, etc. des Saints, by Viel, Tigeon; Gazet, Hist. eccl. des Pays-Bas, p. 328.], Rosweyde Leven der Maegden, p. 469., Compaignon Vie de S. Ermelinde, Brussels 1651., Fisen Flores ecclesiæ Leodiensis, p. 469., Van Loo Levens der Heylige van Nederlandt, vol. II, p. 324., Lahier Le grand Ménologe des Vierges, vol. II, p. 367,, Baillet Baillet, Vies des Saints, vol. VII, p. 428., Saelmaekers [Abrege de la vie de S. Ermelinde, Tienen edition 1849; the same little work in Flemish.], Giry Vies des Saints, vol. II, col. 155 and following, 1729 edition., Gonon Vitæ Patrum Occidentis, book II, p. 91., Ranbeck Annus Benedictinus, at 29 Oct., Herredia Vidas de los santos de la religion de S. Benito, at 29 Oct., Testi Vite delle piu illustri sante, vol. IV, p. 127., the anonymous Venetian hagiographer Il sacro Leggendario, vol. VIII, p. 177, 3rd edition., etc.
[5] The anonymous author of this Life As usually happens in this kind of writings, it is wholly hidden in what age and by what author the Life of St. Ermelinde was first written. It can scarcely be doubted that there existed ancient memorials of the most blessed virgin, which have long since perished: for some things are reported too accurately to have been preserved by the speech of the people alone. But one must not cling to these things which we can pursue only by conjectures; rather pass on to the Life which still survives. And of this too no one could easily define the author and age. In very truth Dycstratius committed to writing that the Life of the most holy virgin was copied by him, as it was held in a very ancient manuscript codex of the church of Utrecht of the year 636. But it must be observed, as our predecessor Ghesquière speaks excellently, that besides the fact that at that time the computation of years from the incarnation of Christ was not yet in use, much less the Arabic, as they call them, ciphers or numeral signs, the very author of that Life sufficiently indicates that he was not so near to the times of Pepin of Landen; since, speaking of the lineage of St. Ermelinde, he uses these words: "For from her noble lineage IT IS SAID that Pepin, father of St. Gertrude, descended" Acta SS. Belgii, vol. II, p. 215 and following..
[6] [He appears to have lived in the 11th or 12th century, following partly vulgar traditions, partly lost documents.] From which words it can be especially gathered that the biographer of St. Ermelinde flourished neither in the 7th century, nor at the beginning of the following; because in that age he would not have spoken so doubtfully of the consanguinity of St. Ermelinde and Blessed Pepin: for the house of Blessed Pepin of Landen, as being by far the first after the Merovingian royal house, could not at that time have failed to be known to him. Nor does it appear that one should go to the opinion of Baillet Vie des Saints, vol. VII, p. XXXI., who decides that he lived in the time of Charlemagne: for this is even less likely, because of the monastery of Meldert, which at that time had not yet been destroyed, not a word is said in the Life of St. Ermelinde. For this reason this one thing seems to be able to be affirmed, that this Life was composed after the destruction of the monastery of Meldert about the 10th century and before the despoiling of the reliquary shrine of St. Ermelinde in the year 1236, since, as about the monastery, so also about that despoiling it keeps deep silence. Further it is not to be omitted that the author of the Life of St. Ermelinde did not always use the best documents for writing it, and accordingly sometimes narrates things which he doubtless received from the mouth of the people. Here is a specimen: At whose funeral, he says, namely St. Ermelinde's, not a crowd of men, but hymn-singing choirs sang glory to Christ. And because she was beloved of Christ, she was most dutifully buried by them. This blessed virgin meanwhile lay hidden for forty-eight years, a stranger to the cult of the world, venerated by the citizens of heaven alone. In which the former part appears to have arisen from the reverential fancy of the people, which loves nothing but what is magnificent in the saints; the latter, which contains the defined number of forty-eight years, to rest on certain and ancient documents. And everywhere the same mixture of certain and uncertain matters appears.
[7] [From this Life it is gathered that St. Ermelinde lived in the 6th century: and from her name, the form of her body, and her kinship it is concluded that she was a Frank.] From this number of forty-eight years it can be elicited in about what age St. Ermelinde lived among the living. For since Pepin built a church over her tomb forty-eight years after she had passed to those above, it is necessary that she departed from this life before the end of the 6th century; since Pepin, as Bollandus endeavoured to show Acta SS. vol. III of February, p. 259., born about the year 580, and appointed mayor of the palace of Dagobert, king of Austrasia (in which Meldert lay), before the year 623, passed to eternal life in the year 646. Which death indeed some critics place a few years before, others a few years after; but this controversy need not be debated on the occasion of St. Ermelinde. St. Ermelinde is called the daughter of Ermenold and Ermesindis, and kinswoman of Blessed Pepin of Landen. Her name at any rate and the names of her parents indicate Frankish origin; although in the 6th century many Gauls or Gallo-Romans were already beginning to take barbarian names: so that from names alone distinctions of nations cannot safely be established [Guerard, Polyptique d'Irminon, prolegomena, chapter VI, §214, vol. I, p. 420.]. That Pepin was a Frank is the common persuasion. Yet Bollandus in the Acts of Blessed Pepin of Landen could not resolve the doubt; so that he wrote these words Acta SS. vol. III of February, p. 250.: Whether Pepin was a Frank or a Roman, or of Belgian origin, say Aduatican or Tungrian, we candidly confess that we do not know. Why he came to this doubt he does not indicate; but probably these are the reasons. First of all the names of Pepin and Begga (the former common in this house, the latter that of the daughter of Blessed Pepin) appear to be Celtic. Then not only Franks were created mayors of the palace, but also Romans or the former inhabitants of the Gauls, as Florus, mayor of the palace of Theodebert I, and likewise Protadius and Claudius, mayors of the palace of Theuderic II, are proof Pertz, die Geschichte der Merovingischen Hausmeier, p. 16 and following.. Yet, since from Blessed Pepin through St. Begga, once wife of Ansegisel, son of St. Arnulf (which St. Arnulf some have also held not to have been a Frank, but a Gallo-Roman), Charlemagne derives his descent (of whom no one among his contemporaries doubted that he was a Frank, and who himself gloried in his Frankish origin, so that, neglecting the more splendid dress of the court of Constantinople, he used his native dress, as Einhard speaks Life of Charlemagne, chapter 23., that is Frankish; and since Charles Martel in ancient monuments is called Karlus Saxo, Pepin of Landen Pepinus Saxo, St. Aldric, bishop of Le Mans and kinsman of Charlemagne, a Frank or Saxon by his father's nation, and Ansegisel a noble Frank [Compare Kervyn de Lettenhove, Rapport sur l'origine belge des Carlovingiens, Bulletins de l'Academie de Bruxelles, series II, vol. XIII, p. 524.]), I hardly know whether
that doubt of our parent be rash; although it would be worthwhile to demonstrate the Frankish or Saxon origin of the house of the Pepins more clearly than has been done so far [Compare Warnkönig and Gérard, Hist. des Carolingiens, vol. I, p. 97 and following.]; for I also see that a man plainly learned in Belgian affairs inclines to this, that he would not have the house of the Pepins wholly alien from the Scots or Irish, or at least from the inhabitants of Flanders Kervyn, op. cit., p. 525.. But we have dwelt too long on these things: for when in the year 1849 the most eminent cardinal archbishop Engelbert Sterckx recognized the relics of the most blessed virgin, those present marvelled at the size and firmness of the bones, which alone would betray a Germanic or Frankish origin.
[8] [St. Ermelinde is wrongly called the daughter of St. Amelberga, sister of SS. Gudula, Pharaildis, and Reinildis,] But not all will have it that St. Ermelinde was the daughter of Ermenold and Ermesendis, since in her Acts, though later than the 10th century, St. Amelberga the widow is read to have been given by her brother Pepin, father of St. Gertrude, to her husband Vuitger, who held the office of the duchy of all Lorraine, and that God gave them a most holy offspring: Aldebert, most blessed pastor of the holy church of Cambrai; … and four sisters dedicated to God, of whom one was Reynildis, another Pharaildis, the third Ermelindis, the fourth Gudila Acta SS. Belgii, vol. IV, p. 639.. Similar things occur in the Chronicle of Arras and Cambrai of Balderic: Blessed Ablebert, says this chronographer Chronicon Cameracense et Atrebatense, chapter XVI, p. 33., was born of Count Witger his father, a holy man, and Amalberga his mother. Whose four holy sisters also were these: Reinildis, Sarachildis , Ermelindis, and also most blessed Guodila, younger in age, but no less excellent in sanctity.* Hence therefore not a few have said that St. Ermelinde was the daughter of Witger and St. Amelberga, sister of SS. Emebert, Reinildis, Pharaildis, and Gudula, and niece of Blessed Pepin of Landen. Indeed others too, understanding that there were two SS. Amelberga, one venerated at Lobbes, the other at Ghent and Temse (to whom a third, of Susteren, is also to be added), and so distinguishing them that they call one the mother or elder and sister of Blessed Pepin, the other the daughter or younger and wife of Witger, have increased by one generation the genealogical tree of the most blessed girl; which they have carried down to Clovis.
[9] Or even niece In place of many let Edmond de Dynter be heard [Chronica Lotharingiæ et Brabantiæ ac Regum Francorum, by Edmond De Dynter, vol. I, part II, pp. 57 and 123.]: Now Clovis, he says, begot King Lothar; … Lothar begot from Ingund King Chilperic; King Chilperic begot from his wife Fredegund… King Lothar the Great; King Lothar the Great begot from Bertrude King Dagobert and Blithild;… Blithild was taken in marriage by Ansbert, the illustrious prince aforesaid, who begot from her Prince Arnold and St. Ferreolus, St. Modericus, and St. Cartisia, virgin; Arnold begot from St. Oda St. Arnulf the prince, at length bishop of Metz. St. Arnulf begot from St. Doda St. Clodulf, and Waitisius, father of St. Wandrille, and the glorious prince Ansegisus… And Ansegisus took to wife St. Begga… daughter of St. Pepin. The father of which Pepin was Carloman… This Carloman also begot Amelberga, sister of the said Pepin, who was given in marriage to the count of Hainault, to whom she bore a son named Walbert and a daughter by her own name Amelberga… And the daughter Amelberga the younger married Witger, count of a certain county in Brabant, who remained at Ham beside Saintes in Brabant. She begot from the same Witger St. Emebert, bishop of Cambrai, … St. Reinildis, virgin, who, martyred at Saintes, rests there, … and St. Pharaildis, who rests at Ghent, and St. Ermelinde, who rests at Meldert, and St. Gudula of Brussels. But whoever has well examined the words both of the author of the Life of St. Amelberga the widow and of Balderic will either confess with Molanus Natales SS. Belgii, p. 233. that the St. Ermelinde who is there called the sister of St. Gudula is another than St. Ermelinde of Meldert; or, if they themselves thought her the same (and now two Saints Ermelinde are not known or found entered in the old sacred calendars), that they are to be accused of manifest error; for the biographer of St. Ermelinde of Meldert, whose authority at any rate is stronger, affirms not only that she was born of Ermenold and Ermesindis, but (what perhaps has more weight) that she was raised from the earth by Blessed Pepin forty-eight years after her death. Add that St. Ermelinde departed from this life before the 7th century had begun, and on the contrary that St. Amelberga the Younger, who was by no means the daughter of St. Amelberga the Elder nor could be by reason of age, departed from the living in the year 772 Compare Acta SS. vol. III of July, p. 72 and following.: whence it follows that St. Ermelinde was wrongly called the daughter of either St. Amelberga and sister of Saints Reinildis and Gudula, in whose Lives (what cannot be omitted) no mention is made of that community of blood with St. Ermelinde. For the rest, this is a common fault of the people, to establish the closest kinships among saints: this is to be seen in St. Amelberga the Elder, who is reported to have been the glorious mother of several saints, but brought into the light only SS. Emebert, Reinildis, and Gudula Compare Acta SS. vol. III of July, p. 65.; but also much more plainly in the twelve martyrs of Hadrumetum, whom (since they are undeservedly called twelve brothers) we have more than once brought forward in a similar matter.
[10] Or sister of Pepin of Landen. Nor is another genealogy any less to be rejected, which is to be found among the writings of the archive of Meldert, and in which Pepin of Landen is reported, no differently than St. Ermelinde, to have been begotten by Ermenold and Ermesindis, although Blessed Pepin is narrated in his Acts to have had Carloman as father; which the author of the miracles of St. Genulf also attests, who flourished about a thousand years ago Acta SS. Belgii, vol. IV, p. 338., adding that the mother of Blessed Pepin was Ermegardis. But it does not please us to dwell longer on the birth of St. Ermelinde, lest we indulge in conjectures beyond measure. We pass over to the rules of her life.
Annotations* Tirlemont
* Pharachildis
§ II. The beginnings of the monastic life in Belgium. The difference between Oriental and Occidental monastic institutions. Which ones St. Ermelinde followed. Why she cut off her hair. She was not a Benedictine nun.
[Among the people of Tours, Rouen, and the Morini there were in the 4th century monasteries and cenobia;] St. Jerome wrote to the virgin Eustochium Works of St. Jerome, vol. I, letter XXII, col. 419, Migne's edition.: There are in Egypt three kinds of monks. One, the Cenobites, whom they call Sauses in the Gentile tongue, we can call "Those Living in Common." The second, the Anchorites, who live alone through the deserts: and they are named from the fact that they have withdrawn far from men. The third kind is that which they call Remoboth… These live together by twos or threes, not many more, living by their own will and control: and of what they have laboured they bring their shares into the midst, that they may have common food… That not a few women followed the same institutions in Egypt we gather from SS. Jerome and Athanasius. But not until the middle of the 4th century did Westerners begin to adopt the monastic life; and, when the Romans still held it disgraceful St. Jerome, Letter XVI, to Principia, on the epitaph of Marcella., and through the rest of Gaul (where only through the Life of St. Antony, written by St. Athanasius, had the new philosophy become known) monasteries were very rare, these were in the western parts, namely among the people of Tours, Rouen, and the Morini, by the work of St. Martin of Tours and St. Victricius, bishop of Rouen, frequent and with a numerous population of men and women, as Sulpicius Severus Life of St. Martin, in Migne, Patrologia, vol. XX, col. 164 and following., St. Paulinus of Nola Works of St. Paulinus, letter to St. Victricius, col. 230, Migne's edition., and the author of the Life of St. Trevirus Acta SS. Belgii, vol. II, p. 200 and following. testify. And in these every variety that was seen in the East is easily detected; for through the goings and comings of Orientals into the Gauls and of Gauls into the East the institutions on both sides were the same.
[12] [But not in Belgium in the middle of the 7th century: there however some imitated the Oriental hermits. Which St. Ermelinde also did;] But whether and where in present-day Belgium in the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries there existed cenobia or common monasteries writers have not handed down to posterity: but it is manifest from the Life of St. Gertrude, written by a contemporary, that in the middle of the 7th century cenobia of nuns, such as the Benedictine monasteries were, were unknown in Belgium: for the man of God Amandus the bishop, coming to the house of Blessed Itta, mother of St. Gertrude, preaching the word of God by the Lord's order, asked that she build a monastery for herself and for her daughter, the servant of God Gertrude, and for the household of Christ: who at once when she understood the knowledge of the UNKNOWN THING pertaining to the salvation of souls, received the sacred veil, and gave herself to God, and all that she had Ibid., vol. III, p. 191.. But that among the Belgians before that time there were monks following, apart or several together, the eremitical life of the Orientals is certain from the fact that SS. Cunibert and Helerius Ibid., vol. II, p. 208. in the district of Tongres, no differently from St. Monon Ibid., p. 418. and Wulfilaicus Ibid., p. 186. in the tract of Luxembourg, at the end of the 6th and the rise of the 7th centuries professed the eremitical life.
[13] [Who cultivated poverty or modest frugality, without however renouncing ownership, and chastity, cutting off her hair] These St. Ermelinde imitated, who, as the biographer says, leaving her home, and setting aside the affairs of her parents, went about alone, anxiously seeking a place where she could devote herself to God alone. Nor is St. Ermelinde read ever to have renounced the ownership of the little estate of Odunca, granted to her by her parents, although she lived in the frugality of a wondrous abstinence, nourishing herself on wild herbs, not inferior to the highest cultivators of the desert. And a similar poverty was cultivated in the East by women hermits, as we gather from the Lives of St. Paula, the Roman widow Acta SS. vol. I of January, p. 719., St. Eustochium, her daughter Ibid., vol. VII of September, p. 641., St. Euphrasia Ibid., vol. II of March, p. 268., and others. Further, immediately after she had disclosed to her parents that she had vowed her virginity to Christ, seizing a blade she cut off the hair hanging down over her milk-white neck, and leaving the world and all its pomps, she followed Christ, whom she had chosen as bridegroom for herself, by the strait and narrow way: by which rite also women hermits in the East
promised chastity to God: as Pseudo-Athanasius [Book on virginity, chapter XI, Complete Works, vol. IV, col. 263, Migne's edition.], St. Jerome Letter to Sabinianus, Complete Works, vol. I, col. 1199., and Palladius Lausiac History, chapter XLI, in Rosweyde, Vitæ Patrum, p. 567. have reported. For through shaving of the head in every age the way to marriage was closed to girls, as disgraced. For Apuleius, setting forth the beauty of woman's hair, after he has said that women bear their hair as the most precious ornament of their head, concludes: And such finally is the dignity of the hair, that however much a woman may go forth adorned with gold, raiment, gems, and all other finery, yet, unless she has arranged her hair, she cannot be called adorned Metamorphoses, book II, p. 280, Nisard's edition.. Indeed it was so shameful for Greek women to put off their hair that adulteresses were shaved as a penalty for their crime: and for that reason St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians (I, chapter XI, v. 6): It is shameful for a woman to be shorn and shaved. For this reason also in the year 390 the emperor Theodosius prohibited virgins from cutting off their hair: which decree however he abrogated in the following year.
[14] Contrary to the custom of the Westerners and especially of the Franks. Now, if St. Ermelinde had emulated the Western virgins, she would by no means have cut off her hair: for from the Acts both of SS. Saturninus and companions Acta SS. vol. II of Feb., p. 519. and of St. Theodotus and the seven virgins Ibid., vol. IV of May, p. 155., or even from the books of SS. Ambrose On the fall of a Virgin, chapter VIII, Complete Works, vol. III, col. 377., Augustine Letter CCXI, to the nuns, Works, vol. II, col. 1074, Optatus of Milevis On the Donatist schism, book VI, col. 1074., and Cæsarius of Arles [Rule for nuns, Recapitulation, no. 7, in the Bibliotheca Patrum of Lyons, vol. VIII, p. 871.], it is clear that virgins consecrated to God in the West preserved their hair. Nor let it be said that among the Frankish nation, from which we have said that St. Ermelinde sprang, nuns or women dwelling in the desert cut off their hair, since Frankish clerics and monks, imitating the Romans, Greeks, and Britons, sheared their hair; although men of Teutonic or Germanic stock made so much of unshorn hair that only free men wore their hair long, and the sons of kings, and kings themselves, lest they should become unfit for the royal dignity [Thiers, Histoire des Perruques, chapter XIV, p. 146 and following; Daniel, Hist. de France, vol. II, p. 135, Griffet's edition.], by no means suffered their hair to be lessened by the shears. For in the very monasteries of France nuns did not have their hair taken away, as is established from the tumult of the Poitiers monastery of the Holy Cross after the death of St. Radegund [Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, book II, chapter XV, Migne's edition, col. 544.] and from several Ordines, especially of the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries, used for the blessing of virgins Martène, de Antiquis ecclesiæ ritibus, book II, pp. 131 and 136.. St. Ermelinde therefore, by cutting off her hair, professed perpetual chastity. For if any woman among the Franks voluntarily or under compulsion put off her hair, she was held by her own people unfit for entering matrimony, as worthy of every injury. Hence Fredegund, when she wished to turn away Clovis, son of Chilperic and Audovera, from entering into marriage with a certain girl, ordered the hair of the girl's head to be cut, and commanded it to be set on a split stake and fixed before the quarters of Clovis History of the Franks, book V, chapter XL, col. 355, Migne's edition.. Thus also Blessed Itta, wife of Blessed Pepin of Landen, that the violators of souls might not by force snatch her daughter St. Gertrude to the enticements and pleasures of this world, seized the barber's blade, and cut off the hair of the holy girl in the form of a crown… The quarrels ceased, the devil's side was vanquished Life of St. Gertrude in the Acta SS. Belgii, vol. III, p. 151..
[15] [Nor does she appear to have acknowledged the authority of any abbot or to have professed stability of domicile.] Further, St. Ermelinde appears to have subjected herself to no certain rule, nor by a vow or religious profession to have stripped herself of the ability of passing to another domicile or desert: hence we read that she first lived in the place which they say was Bevecom *, and afterwards betook herself to Meldert; where she remained until death. Which kind of life again was wholly conformable to the manner of living of Oriental nuns. Nor by any other way did the holy virgins Reinildis Acta SS. vol. IV, pp. 649 and 950., Gudula Ibid., vol. V, p. 693; Acta SS. vol. I of Jan., p. 515., Landrada Acta SS. Belgii, vol. V, p. 212; Acta SS. vol. II of July, p. 619., and Berlindis Ibid., vol. V, p. 268. arrive at perfect sanctity; all of whom in Belgium, renouncing their paternal inheritance only in part, in their own homes, under no one's obedience, now here, now there, having received the sacred veil, cultivated poverty, that is, a certain modest frugality, and chastity. Which things surely suffice for proving that St. Ermelinde lived the eremitical life, which in the 4th century had been brought over from the East to the Gauls.
[16] [For this reason she is wrongly called a Benedictine by some; which Rule she could not follow, as not yet adapted to nuns.] And to these things we should add nothing, had not very nearly all the menologists, Wion, Ménard, Bucelin, Herredia, Ranbeck, and Arthur du Monstier wrongly proclaimed St. Ermelinde a nun of the Order of St. Benedict. For if St. Ermelinde professed the monastic life in this sacred order, it must have been that the monastery which she lived in during the 6th century was at the beginning of the 7th century so destroyed and obliterated that Blessed Itta, who lived not far from Tienen and Louvain, soon after the death of her husband Blessed Pepin of Landen, did not know it: for, as we indicated above, hearing the praises of monasteries from the mouth of St. Amand of Maastricht, she understood the knowledge of an unknown thing pertaining to the salvation of souls: which things seem less likely. Nor anywhere in the Life of St. Ermelinde is it to be detected that she depended on the will of another, or followed one and the same kind of living with other nuns stably in the same domicile, as was prescribed to the disciples of St. Benedict. Then Mabillon, who applied his labour rather to increasing than to diminishing the number of Benedictine saints, confesses that St. Donatus, bishop of Besançon, first partly adapted the rule of St. Benedict to women: and this he especially proves from St. Donatus himself, who began the prologue of the Rule given by him to nuns with these words: You quite often enjoin on me that, having examined the rule of St. Cæsarius, bishop of Arles, which was dedicated more specially to the virgins of Christ, together with those of the most blessed abbots Benedict too and Columban, gathering as it were (if I may so say) certain little flowers into one, I should excerpt or heap up for you in the manner of an enchiridion, and should promulgate what would more specially be proper for the female sex to keep; saying that the rules of the aforesaid fathers by no means suited you, since they had published them rather for men and by no means for women, and, although St. Cæsarius had dedicated a rule properly to virgins of Christ, such as you are, yet on account of the change of place it by no means suited you in some conditions Patrologia Migne, vol. LXXXVII, col. 273.. Now, since St. Donatus, born about the year 594, appears to have been at the time of the aforesaid rule, says our Ghesquière in the Commentary on the Life of St. Aurea Ibid., vol. II of October, p. 479 and following., not a young bishop, but a dim and broken old man, or certainly a man of fifty, as Donatus himself hints in the Prologue of his rule, where he asserts that having long and much resisted before, he at length satisfied the requests of the nuns, and strove from the three rules just mentioned to compose one rule in the manner of an enchiridion, "as far as divine piety gave the possibility in view of his continual bodily infirmity and the dimness of his dulled sense permitted"; and since St. Donatus was of this age, it is manifest that he composed his Rule after the year 644 Acta SS. Belgii, vol. III, p. 181., and so that before this time there were no Benedictine nuns in France; and accordingly that St. Ermelinde, who died at the end of the 6th century, is not to be listed among them.
[17] [St. Ermelinde was probably buried not far from her little cell, in the manner of hermits.] Now how many years St. Ermelinde lived the eremitical life is difficult to say, as we explained at no. 6 of this Commentary. It is likely that she lived and departed from the living not far from the place of her burial: for that old hermits were also quite often buried in their cells has been shown more than once in our work. In which way St. Amandus the hermit, St. Gall the abbot, and St. Vitalis the hermit, who were all illustrated at the 16th of October, were buried in their cells. To whom may be added St. Dodo, whose Acts the present volume contains. And the origin of this eremitical rite appears to be explained in the old Constitutions of the Camaldolese, which Blessed Rudolph wrote about the year 1080, and in which, chapter XXX, it is prescribed that, if any Camaldolese should die in the place of Fonte Buono, he should be brought to the hermitage to be buried. For it is just, this reason is added, that he should have the sepulchre of his passing where he had the habitation of his solitary sanctity. Which indeed occur also in other Constitutions of the same order, written by Blessed Rudolph in the year 1085 Acta SS. vol. VII of October, p. 847 and following.. We now give the Acts of St. Ermelinde, which the Posthumous Glory will follow.
Annotations* Beauvechain
LIFE OF ST. ERMELINDE, VIRGIN,
from two Utrecht codices, collated with the edition of Surius.
Ermelinde, virgin, at Meldert in Brabant. (S.)
BHL Number: 2605
SOLE CHAPTER.
The parents of St. Ermelinde; her girlhood; her eremitical life; her dwelling at Meldert; her death; her burial; her miracles.
St. Ermelinde, very pious from tender years, The blessed virgin Ermelinde, sprung from Ermenold her father and Ermesendis her mother, conspicuous both in lineage and in riches, from her earliest age was zealous to ascend from virtue to virtue, that she might merit to see the God of gods a in Sion. And while she was still held bound in her parents' house by the bond of a girlish age, she yet did nothing girlish in deed, but displayed to those looking on a certain maturity of character in her bearing. For she shunned wantonness and the company of those of her age, staying in her mother's bedchamber, and learning the Psalms of David b. If at any time she had heard the word of God, she laid it up in a sagacious memory, and bringing it back quite often to her mouth, like a clean animal, she ruminated on it with ever new affection of piety. Even then she foretasted the sweetness of the bridegroom in a great and incomprehensible manner, and burning with desire for Him, she said with holy David: "My soul has thirsted for God the living fountain, when shall I come and appear before the face of my God?" and
again: "As the hart desires the fountains of waters, so my soul desires Thee, O God."
[2] [Having cut off her hair, she professes chastity; and, having received from her parents the villa of Odunca for her sustenance,] And when girlhood had passed into youth, as her parents wished her to marry and procreate children, she by no means consented, saying that she had vowed her virginity to Christ. At last, seizing a blade, she cut off the hair hanging down over her milk-white neck; and leaving the world and all its pomps, she followed Christ, whom she had chosen as bridegroom for herself, by the strait and narrow way. Nor did she draw back her foot until she came to the prize, ever having in memory what He did for us, and what He suffered. And her parents, unable to change her purpose either by threats or by blandishments, with one accord handed over the revenues of a certain little estate, Odunca c by name, for the use of her service.
[3] [She proceeds to the hermitage of Bevecum; from which, for the sake of preserving chastity,] But the blessed virgin Ermelinde, leaving her home, and setting aside the affairs of her parents, went about alone, anxiously seeking a place where she could devote herself to God alone. She came therefore to a certain estate d, over which two brothers-german presided, blooming in the first flower of youth. These had not yet contracted lawful marriages, but served the vanities and enticements of the world. There therefore the venerable virgin, staying for some time, judged that this place had been prepared for her by God. And days and nights she frequented the church e, going with bare feet, offering her own body as a holocaust to the Lord: she humbled herself, subjecting herself to servitude, flattering herself nothing on the nobility of her lineage. For from her noble lineage is said to have descended Pepin, father of St. Gertrude, to whose merits Blessed Ermelinde was zealous to be equal f. Not yet at that time had St. Amand g taken up the helm of the church of Maastricht, by whose doctrine and instruction many afterwards were compelled to return from their error to the ways of justice.
[4] Against whom two youths and the warden of the church laid snares, This virgin then was the singular lamp of her generation, among whom she shone with the whiteness of virtues, like a lily among thorns. Nor was the temptation of the enemy lacking to her. For the ancient foe, lying in wait for her heel, endeavoured to pour out the oil which she was still preserving in an earthen vessel. For indeed the aforesaid brothers, quite often observing her coming in and going out, burned with concupiscence for her; neither knowing the thought of the other. Yet each watched for the time and hour at which he might catch her alone, in order to satiate his lust with her comeliness. But when they could by no means find a time suited for fulfilling their malice, they were tortured inwardly by blind love. Yet what were they to do? For not without grave scandal to the whole town h could they do violence to a virgin of such reputation. And one i of them, whom the flame of lust burned more, went to the warden of the church, promising the greatest gifts, if through him he could have the consent of the virgin. For she spoke to him quite often and rather familiarly; through him she had access to the church every night; although the sanctity of the virgin could not lie hidden so long under a sheepskin. He, wholly despairing of the consent of the virgin (for he knew that her mind was solidified and founded in Christ), rather urged the youth that she should be seized in the stillness of the night. For at this hour, having tasted a little of sleep, she was accustomed to come to the church, offering herself a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God. And what are you doing, O human malice? There is no wisdom, there is no prudence, there is no counsel against the Lord.
[5] [She therefore migrates to Meldert; where she dies and (as is reported) is buried by angels. The body lies hidden in the sepulchre for 48 years.] Then on the night on which she was to be seized, she merited to hear an angelic voice admonishing her by name: "Withdraw," it said, "virgin, withdraw, and keep inviolate the virginity which you have consecrated to God." She, greatly terrified, obeying the command, began her journey. And as she was being led by the Holy Spirit, an angel of the Lord appeared to her a second time and commanded her not to abandon the way which she had begun. "You will come," said the angel, "to an estate which you shall call Meldrix k; for there God has prepared for you a place for accomplishing the vow of your desire." The venerable virgin therefore came to the place which the angel had foretold to her; and there living long in the frugality of a wondrous abstinence, she kept herself to the commandment of the twofold love. And Blessed Ermelinde was nourished only on wild herbs, not inferior to the highest cultivators of the desert: she also tortured her tender girlish limbs with hard injuries. All sorts of religious persons also frequented her l; but the more the Lord spread her fame, the more humbly she behaved. At length, after many contests, called forth by the Lord, she attained the heavenly glory which, while placed on earth, she sought with all devotion. At whose funeral not a crowd of men, but hymn-singing choirs sang glory to Christ. And because she was beloved of Christ, she was most dutifully buried by them. This blessed virgin meanwhile lay hidden for forty-eight years, a stranger to the cult of the world, venerated by the citizens of heaven alone. Thus at length Christ manifested her to this world, that she, who was already glorified with Him in heaven, might also be honoured among men on earth.
[6] At this her sepulchre, which God reveals, a pious man builds a chapel; There was then a certain man m, who, when he was passing through the aforesaid solitude, called Meldrix by the angel and by Blessed Ermelinde alike, it happened, God disposing, that he could go no further. And at the middle hour of the night the tomb of the virgin appeared, brighter than the clearness of the sun, and he heard angels singing psalms. And when the light of day appeared, the heavenly vision disappeared, but an odour of excessive sweetness remained in the same place. After this the aforesaid devout man, his business having been finished, returned to the aforesaid place, and at the tomb of his sign a second time most devoutly kept watch; nor was he frustrated of his hope. For the pious Lord again deigned to reveal to him the glorification of His bride. For her whom He had glorified with Himself in heaven He was disposing also to magnify on earth. And he, made more certain of the Lord's will, rising in the morning glad, and giving thanks to God, said: "Truly the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not" Gen. XXVIII. And at once returning to his own, having taken up all that was of his right, he built a chapel over the tomb of the virgin n, and there living with sobriety, he obtained the end of his days in peace.
[7] The body is uncovered and many miracles follow. The peoples therefore, hearing what had been done, came together to the place, singing in concord of heart and soul this antiphon: "These are Thy works, O Christ, who dost so glorify Thy saints, and the rest" o. And at once opening the earth, there appeared a sarcophagus, in which lay the body of the inviolate virgin. Of a sudden there flowed forth such an abundance of healings that there could fittingly be applied to her what the Lord says in the Gospel: "He who believes in me, the works which I do, he also shall do and greater he shall do." For sight was restored to the blind, hearing to the deaf, walking to the lame, and to all who knocked health and soundness. Demons also, going out from the bodies possessed, betrayed by their expulsion against their will the merit of the virgin. Finally whoever faithfully touched her sepulchre was made whole, from whatever infirmity he was held by. Moved by the odour of her virtues, there came from distant regions men with women, and delicate virgins, imploring the mercy of the Lord with bare feet. And through the merit of the blessed virgin Ermelinde they perceived that the grace of God had been with them, returning to their own glad and eager. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
These assemblies, instituted for this cause, first established a seat in a certain place for the sake of dwellings: and when they had fenced it by the nature of the place and by hand, they called such a conjunction of roofs a town or city, marked out by shrines and common spaces. Every people therefore, which is such an assembly of a multitude as I have set forth; every state, which is the constitution of a people; every commonwealth, which is the affair of the people, must be ruled by a certain counsel, that it may be lasting.
POSTHUMOUS GLORY OF ST. ERMELINDE, VIRGIN
Ermelinde, virgin, at Meldert in Brabant. (S.)
BHL Number: 2606
BY R. D. B.
§ I. The cult of St. Ermelinde at Meldert, at Lovenjoul, at Tienen, in the whole diocese of Mechelen, at Moergestel and in Slavic Bohemia. Her memory in the martyrologies.
[St. Ermelinde, whose veneration is very ancient and has extended to several places,] That the pious veneration of the most blessed virgin Ermelinde began when, forty-eight years after her death, her body was taken from the sepulchre cannot fail to be manifest to anyone from what we reported at the end of the Commentary and of the Life. This veneration flourished above all at Meldert; but it extended to some few places. And of these we shall now so speak that we first report what things are as it were general; and then that in individual paragraphs we pursue the history of the relics, the monastery, the benefices, the indulgences, and other similar things by which the honour of St. Ermelinde was increased both at Meldert and elsewhere. At the end we shall take care that the old Office and the old Mass are printed.
[2] a. For more than twelve centuries she is venerated at Meldert: That at Meldert therefore the honours of the saints were rendered to St. Ermelinde from the remotest times is beyond all controversy. For the author of the Life and the perpetual tradition of the church of Meldert, recorded in the liturgical books and in marble sculptures, make it undoubted that there, over the sepulchre of the most pious virgin, when she became renowned by frequent miracles, a chapel was built. Nor was this sacred cult ever interrupted, as is proved both by the translations of the relics and by the public supplications and other things of this kind used in honour of the most blessed patroness by the people of Meldert. And indeed we have in hand a copy of the Mass and ecclesiastical Office of St. Ermelinde of the church of Meldert, which, to please Heribert Rosweyde, John Pinson, parish priest of Meldert, transcribed in the year 1621 from a very old parchment codex of the archive of his church. Which Office and Mass were in use long before the council of Trent. But of those no trace has long since survived at Meldert, and before the year 1838 all things were done there at the 29th of October in honour of St. Ermelinde from the Common of Virgins. And formerly indeed three festivals were kept there in her honour, as in the year 1728 Herman Corthout, parish priest of Meldert, wrote to our predecessors: Yearly, he says, at Meldert three feasts are celebrated in honour of St. Ermelinde (in Dutch Heiligdagen, by which word feasts in choir and in the forum are signified, that is, on which mass must be heard and one must abstain from servile work); and the birthday of St. Ermelinde on the 29th of October; the discovery of her body is recalled with festive rite on the 21st of April. Finally on the third day of Pentecost her silver reliquary is carried around in a solemn column of supplicants, with such a concourse of pilgrims that they generally exceed the number of six thousand. But by the concordat of the year 1801 that law, born of custom, was suppressed; but the popular piety remained.
[3] Likewise at Lovenjoul, There is also another parish in the diocese of Mechelen, by name Lovaniolum, in the vernacular Lovenjoul, some kilometres distant from Louvain, in which from remotest antiquity St. Ermelinde was honoured with ecclesiastical cult, the Mass Dilexisti being celebrated on the 29th of October down to the year 1838. And that the devotion of the people of Lovenjoul toward the holy virgin might grow from day to day, Peter Vanderlinden, vicar general of the archbishop of Mechelen and formerly dean of the district of Louvain, who died in the year 1842, enriched the church of Lovenjoul with relics from the bones of St. Ermelinde. Further at Odunca, which is a hamlet of Lovenjoul and where they say St. Ermelinde was born, there gushes a spring, called the spring of St. Ermelinde; the water of which spring was blessed yearly on the 29th of October by the venerable man William van Ex, who for forty-five years administered the parish of Lovenjoul, where he died on the 28th of October of the year 1809. In our age indeed pious affection toward St. Ermelinde has taken no moderate increases, a new chapel having been built in her honour, in the year 1857, beside the spring by the work and expense of Barbara Geyssens, widow of Andrew Van Schoonbeeck, Maria Geyssens, widow De Coninck, and Joanna De Coninck, heirs of Louis De Coninck, a most pious man, who had long since thought of building this chapel, and indeed, bricks having been procured, had designated a suitable place, but, the thing not done, had been overtaken by death in the year 1855. This new oratory was therefore inaugurated in the year 1857, the venerable parish priest Norbert Willems carrying there with great pomp the statue of St. Ermelinde which was venerated in the parish church. From then on on every Sunday many of the faithful of Christ of both sexes come together there to recite the rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
[4] [On the occasion of which there is discussion of the patronage attributed to saints on account of the similarity of their name to diseases and other things;] Here also yearly thousands of the sick betake themselves to implore the aid of St. Ermelinde or to drink water from her spring, for obtaining especially the healing of weak arms and legs. For since this generally obtains, that the people love to invoke saints whose name approaches the words for the things which they wish commended to the saints, hence it came about that, since the first syllable of the name Ermelinde (Erm, in the vulgar dialect the same as Arm) signifies arm, the blessed virgin became the refuge of those who suffer in the arm: which patronage was extended on account of similarity to the legs. Thus above in this volume it was shown that St. Dodo (because Dodo sounds as it were dos dos) was made the patron of those suffering in the back; elsewhere St. Mummolin, of mumbling children (mommelen); elsewhere St. Blaise, of those afflicted with blisters or pustules (blazen) and other swellings of this kind; elsewhere St. Clarus, martyr of Lectoure, and St. Clarus, martyr of the Vexin, of those with dim eyes; elsewhere St. Fara, virgin of Meaux, of the purblind and the blind; elsewhere St. Cæsarius of Avignon, of those with headaches; St. Syrenus, martyr resting in the village of Billom among the Arverni, no differently from St. Serenedus, confessor of Le Mans, of the fair weather of the air or of rain; elsewhere St. Clarus, bishop of Nantes, and St. Clare, first plant of the second order of the Minors, of the clearness or fair weather of the air; elsewhere St. Cornelius, on account of his name painted with a horn, of horned animals; St. Agnes of lambs; St. Olave of loaves (whole loaf in English, an entire loaf); St. Scithewell or Sidwell of reapers (scythe in English, a sickle), or of springs (well in English, a spring); and for this reason so often saints appear so painted or sculpted that they as it were signify their name by things and indicate their popular patronage.
[5] Likewise at Tienen, where there were ancient foundations in her honour; At Tienen moreover, a noble town of Brabant, before the memory of men there was erected in the collegiate church of St. Germanus an altar in honour of St. Ermelinde. Which is established from several donations, entered in the cartulary of St. Germanus, and pointed out to me by the venerable man Peter Betz, present parish priest at Neerlinter near Tienen, who has outstandingly elucidated before other writers the origins and antiquities of Tienen, his native place. Of these donations, which are indications of former piety, it will be of use to bring forward one or another. On the 2nd of September of the year 1423 then Otto, called Stortbier, of Tienen, of the diocese of Liège, founded four masses at the altar of St. Ermelinde, situated in the church of St. Germanus at Tienen, to be celebrated weekly; so that these masses are to be celebrated on every Sunday of the season, on Mondays for the faithful departed, and on all Wednesdays and Fridays likewise of the season, unless a solemn feast should occur on any of the days. Then by an agreement entered into on the 18th of June of the year 1459 between the chapter of St. John of Liège and the parish priest of St. Germanus, it was established that the benefice of St. Ermelinde should in future be conferred by the chapter of St. John the Evangelist. But since the two preceding excerpts of the Cartulary are from a codex which comprises charters from the year 1214 to 1427, and the diploma of foundation of the altar of St. Ermelinde is absent from this codex, the venerable man Peter Betz rightly deduces from this that the altar of St. Ermelinde itself was erected before the year 1214. Which benefice however, since no mention of it is made in the polyptych of the year 1441, appears then to have ceased. But not for that reason did the cult of St. Ermelinde cease in the church of St. Germanus: for Aubert le Mire wrote in the year 1622 Fasti Belgici et Burgundici, p. 638. that the feast of St. Ermelinde was kept there on the 29th of October: and in a manuscript book of the same church of the year 1792,
whose title is: Proper Masses of the church of Tienen of St. Germanus, there is read: 29 October, Ermelindis, virgin. Double. The Mass Dilexisti from the common of virgins only. What is more, as the venerable Eduard Van Doren, the present parish priest of the parish of St. Germanus at Tienen, wrote to me, most courteously communicating to me all the historical records of his church, among the twelve saints, men and women, patrons of Tienen, whose images splendidly adorn the great window constructed and painted in colors in the year 1866, St. Ermelindis appears: so that the former veneration persists.
[6] and finally through the whole diocese of Mechelen. Formerly the cult of St. Ermelindis was confined to those places of Belgium; but in our age it is far more widely extended, since it has been made common to the entire and immense diocese of Mechelen. For since among those things, as his Eminence Cardinal Engelbert Sterckx, archbishop of Mechelen, wrote on the 13th of November of the year 1838 Proper of Mechelen of the year 1838, winter part, page 5 and following, since among those most sorrowful things which, at the close of the eighteenth century, befell the church of God from the French upheavals, in Belgium also, this brought no small cause of grief throughout the diocese of Mechelen, that, with the bishopric of Antwerp extinguished and many chapters and monasteries abolished, the cult of the saints of our country in great measure ceased, and since for that reason the petitions of many of the clergy had reached him, by which they earnestly desired that he should endeavor to remedy this evil, he resolved either to revive or to extend the fading cult of many saints. For this reason, having employed several men skilled in sacred matters, he arranged, with the approval of the Sacred Congregation of Rites and the consent of the Roman pontiff, a diocesan office; and from the ancient offices of the metropolitan church of Mechelen, of the cathedral of Antwerp, and of the neighboring dioceses, and likewise from the offices of the old chapters and monasteries, he gathered the saints who, formerly honored, as he says, with a special cult in our diocese, claimed for themselves a particular gratitude on our part. And hence it has come about that in our times, throughout the whole diocese of Mechelen, each year on the 29th of October the Mass Dilexisti is celebrated with double rite in honor of St. Ermelindis, and the lessons of the second nocturn are wholly devoted to recounting her praises.
[7] Under the name of St. Everlina she is said to be venerated at Moergestel; But not only in the diocese of Mechelen, but also (if a more recent interpretation is to be believed) at Moergestel, a parish of the diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch, the honor of the saints is paid to St. Ermelindis. The beginnings of this cult are so obscure that Wichmans, the illustrious ornament of the Premonstratensian Order and a man most versed in the ecclesiastical affairs of that region, investigating the origins of the parish of Moergestel, wrote the following, full of doubt: Here is venerated a certain saint whose name, life, and death, after serious investigation, neither I nor many others with me have hitherto been able to find anywhere in calendar, martyrology, or writer. Only this extract from the Acts of the visitation of the most reverend Lord Nicolaas Zoes, late bishop of Bois-le-Duc (or 's-Hertogenbosch), of the year 1619, with Lord Hendrik van Leemputte, Licentiate of Sacred Theology, assisting, was I able to obtain: "In the church of Moerghestel there is venerated St. Everlina, who before the troubles is said to have rested there, and there still survives some appearance of a tomb, at which offerings of nails are made in odd number." Thus far the extract. I myself have rather often seen the offered nails, and it was said that as many were offered as the number of bloody sores from which one was suffering, commonly called BLOETSWEIREN; for the driving away of which she is chiefly invoked. She has a statue above the tomb, and carries in her hand an iron horseshoe, in the vernacular, EEN HOEF-YSER (in French, fer a cheval)… She is called in the vernacular Sinte-Everlyn. Thus far Wichmans, in the year 1632 Brabantia Mariana, book II, page 431. Now as to why nails were offered, the reason seems to be that bloody sores in some degree take on the form of nails, whence in French they are called clous (nails). The odd number of the nails is explained by the fact that among the common people in not a few places of Belgium the opinion still flourishes even now that bloody sores always come in an odd number. And as to the holy virgin's being shown holding an iron horseshoe in her hand, may this not perhaps have come about because through the nails her patronage passed over to the blacksmiths? Since, therefore, these things hold much that is remarkable and difficult, our Papebroch was asked in the year 1687 by Philippe Taisne whether he knew anything of St. Everlina, who is venerated at Moer-Gestel. Wherefore he wrote to Philippus Nutius, who communicated to Papebroch the reply given to him by Franciscus Hovius, a canon regular of Tongerlo, at that time parish priest in Moergestel. Hovius wrote back as follows: At Moer-Gestel it is not St. Everlina who is venerated, but St. Ermelindis, to whom many who suffer from bloody sores have recourse with great profit. So much from Papebroch's slips, without any indication of how, after Wichmans, it came to be known that St. Everlina is the same as St. Ermelindis. In our own age also, as the venerable Lambert Van Doren, parish priest in Moergestel, recently wrote to me, not a few people each year on the Monday of Pentecost (for this season is solemn by reason of the old banal processions, as if sacred pilgrimages) flock together to invoke St. Ermelindis, seeking healing from bloody sores and other diseases or protection against them. J. A. Coppens Beschryving van het bisdom van s'Hertogenbosch, volume IV, page 141 adds that there is no longer there the statue placed above the tomb, of which Wichmans speaks. For the rest, at Moergestel the feast of St. Ermelindis is not celebrated, nor is she venerated with any particular ecclesiastical honor.
[8] what is more, her name is celebrated in Slavic Bohemia.. In Slavic Bohemia too, some of whose customs (as you may wonder at) agree with the customs of Belgium, St. Ermelindis is not a little known, as is manifest from the work written in German by Baron von Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, whose title is: Festkalender aus Bœhmen, or Calendar of Feasts in Bohemia. As appears from what is related there at the 30th of October, St. Ermelindis is held in those places to be the patroness of virginal chastity. And just as in Brabant, because of the first part of the name, the protection of the arms was commended to St. Ermelindis, so in Bohemia the latter part, linde, by which among peoples of Germanic stock the linden tree is signified, was the cause why a certain affinity was devised between linden trees and St. Ermelindis. Wherefore it is said there that lindens planted on the feast of St. Ermelindis easily take root Revue d'Archéologie belge, year 1864, volume IV, page 157 and following.
[9] Her name is also inscribed in many martyrologies and menologies; Moreover, St. Ermelindis is inscribed in a good many martyrologies and menologies at the 29th of October. Thus one reads in Molanus's Auctarium to Usuard: At the villa of Meldert, St. Ermelindis, virgin; and in another, excerpted from the Register of the Charterhouse of Utrecht: Ermelindis, virgin, who left her homeland for the sake of chastity. Then in the Belgian Martyrology of Molanus, whose title is: Natales Sanctorum Belgii: At the villa of Meldert, St. Ermelindis, virgin; to which words is subjoined a summary of the Life of St. Ermelindis. Likewise in the other Belgian Martyrology, written by Baudouin Willot: At the villa of Meldaert, near Tienen, St. Ermelindis, virgin, died, and there was buried by angels. Add that in the Gallican Martyrology of Du Saussay there occurs: On the same day (29 October) the birthday of St. Ermelindis, virgin; who, sister of St. Ablibertus, bishop of Cambrai, and of St. Gudula, glowing with entire longing for heavenly things, consecrated her virginity to God at twelve years of age: and, consecrated to the eternal Bridegroom in the monastery of the villa of Odenca near Lovaniolum, she offered to him a pure holocaust of herself in all purity of spirit and flesh, and, having finished her course by a happy death, she flew away to the everlasting life for which she had long hoped. The remains of this sacred virgin, because they shone with great flashes of blessedness, being eagerly sought by her devoted clients, were so divided that one part of them is preserved laid up at Meldert on the border of Brabant, and the other part at Tienen in the territory of Cambrai, not far from the college of canons of St. Germanus. That these statements are in many respects erroneous is manifest both from what was said above in the Preliminary Commentary on the blessed virgin's parentage and from what we point out below concerning the relics. Her memory is likewise celebrated in the Canisian Martyrology of Walasser, in the Universal Martyrologies of Castellanus and Mullerus, in the Catalogue of saints both the manuscript one of Vochtius and the printed one of Simon Peyronnet, in Molanus's Index of the saints of Belgium, and in the General Catalogue of the saints of Ferrarius. Finally she is listed at the 29th of October among the saints of the Benedictine Order by Wion in book III of the Lignum Vitæ, by Ménard in the Martyrology of the Order of St. Benedict, by Bucelinus in the Menology of the Order of St. Benedict, by Benedict Cherle in the Benedictine Martyrology, by Ægidius Ransbeck in the Benedictine Annual Calendar, by Heredia in the Spanish work Vidas de santos etc. de la religion de san Benito, and by Arthur du Monstier in the Gynecæum: but we have already shown that she was never a Benedictine.
[10] and a number of images, engraved on copper, are extant. Now since the cult of St. Ermelindis had been so widely propagated, a number of images of her were engraved on copper. Ægidius Ranbeck showed her in the form of a Benedictine nun, and so arranged the image that at her side ten angels appear to be attending to the holy virgin's funeral. Thomas de Leu represented her whole life, death, and funeral, as they are described in the Louvain manuscript Life, of which we have spoken elsewhere. Likewise in the Historia Virginum of Rosweyde the blessed girl is portrayed having a man beside her, from whose mouth she puts a demon to flight. There is also, at the beginning of the Life of St. Ermelindis written by Compaignon, an image depicting two angels conducting the holy virgin's funeral, two other angels scattering roses and other flowers round about, and three others in the air celebrating her triumph: beside them is drawn the parish church, and below it the armorial bearings of the house of Oyenbrugge. There survives also an image once engraved on copper through the care and at the expense of Philippe François Van der Noot, baron of Carloo, who had taken in marriage Anne Antoinette Josèphe d'Oyenbrugge, countess of Duras and baroness of Meldert. This image is triangular, so that the paper copies struck off by the press, glued to little rods, might be fastened by pious pilgrims to hat or breast as badges or little banners. In it Bl. Ermelindis is shown again being placed in the tomb by two angels, two others scattering roses and other flowers from a basket around the body, and four others in the air singing her praises in concert. There appear in the same place the ancient parish church, then the oratory of St. Ermelindis, and finally the castle of Meldert, with the armorial bearings of Philippe François Van der Noot added at the end. Below the image there is read in French: St. Ermelindis, pray for us.
§ II. The men's monastery of St. Bavo and the women's monastery of St. Ermelindis at Calvus Mons, a hamlet of Meldert.
[It is related that a Benedictine monastery of women, having clerics attached to it, was built at the tomb of St. Ermelindis on the neighboring Mount of the Calf by Bl. Pepin of Landen.] But if a number of writers have ascribed St. Ermelindis to the Benedictine Order, this probably
was the cause, that formerly nearly all Western monks, nuns, and hermits were reckoned to have kept the institutes of St. Benedict. And the ease of error grew greatly from this, that at some time all the old monasteries (unless they passed over to canons or perished) received the Rule of St. Benedict, or that Benedictine cloisters were erected near the tombs of hermits; whose inhabitants, in so great an ignorance of sacred antiquity, were readily persuaded that their patron had both put on the Benedictine habit and observed the Rule. These things hold also in the case of St. Ermelindis. For near the tomb of the most holy virgin a religious house was erected in which the institutes of St. Benedict prevailed. The origin of this cloister is set forth in the Louvain manuscript codex of the Life of St. Ermelindis; from which it has seemed good to recite this passage: For at that time Duke Pepin held the principate among the Franks after the king, glorious in the sight of the people, more glorious in the sight of God, who had himself also begotten a daughter, namely St. Gertrude, marked with the privilege of the highest blessing. This aforesaid prince, learning of the events and receiving the new report of the blessed tidings, came swiftly and devoutly to the place, and, the sacred body being raised from the tomb, laid it away with fitting honor; he also enriched the place with a very great multitude of estates, laying the foundation of a monastery where the people of God might worship Christ. Out of reverence, therefore, for the supreme Creator, and for the merit of her most blessed chastity, the same duke completed a hall for the virgin (St. Ermelindis), made equal to the company of the blessed; establishing there a choir of holy virgins who should unceasingly pay the sacrifice of due praise. He also gave no small crowd of servants, who should constantly render the dues of all service. At length, the oratory of the precious temple being completed and crowned with sacred gifts and ministers, he established the custom of ecclesiastical religion and set firm the authority of the auspicious rule. And in order that those dwelling there might fulfill it with more devout contest and endeavor, he placed under them a company of clerics who by turns should attend to the solemnities of the masses. For the congregation was near the monastery of the blessed confessor Bavo on the mount which is called the Mount of the Calf. Thus far the fuller biographer.
[12] [but in these things many points do not satisfy, for instance the name of Bl. Pepin, the Benedictine Rule, and the Mount of the Calf;] In these things some points displease, others please. In the first place it does not please me that that monastery should have been built by Bl. Pepin of Landen. For in the Lives from Utrecht, which we have said are more ancient and purer, no mention is made of this matter. Then, if this were true, the contemporary biographer of St. Gertrude would not have written (as we have already pointed out elsewhere) that to Bl. Ida, after the happy death of her husband Pepin, when she was asked by St. Amandus to build a monastery for her daughter Gertrude, this kind of institution seemed a thing unknown Acta SS. Belgii, volume III, page 151. Much less does it please me that before the middle of the seventh century the virgins of Meldert are said the auspicious rule, that is, the Rule of St. Benedict, as we showed above, was not adapted to women before the year 644. This Rule, as Cornelius Smet shows, was by no means employed in the most ancient monasteries of Belgium, those of Nivelles Ibid. page 182, Maubeuge Ibid. volume IV, page 308, and Mons; indeed it has not been manifestly shown from any ancient document that there was in present-day Belgium, in either the seventh or the eighth century, a single monastery of Benedictine nuns. Thirdly, it does not please me that the place where, within the bounds of the parish of Meldert, the monastery is related to have stood, is called the Mount of the Calf. For this is a wrong interpretation of the word Calmons, which already occurs in the diploma on the division of King Lothar's realm among his brothers made in the year 870 Duchesne, Historiæ Francorum Scriptores, volume II, page 455. For that land has from the remotest times borne among the people of the country the name Blootenberg, in Latin Calvus Mons, because, just as the head of men bare of hair is said to be bald, so too mountains destitute of trees or crops have not infrequently been called bald mountains: hence several towns in Gaul called Chaumont, in Latin Calvi Montes, seem to have derived their name [Valois, Notitia Galliarum, page 118; Lepage, Diction. geograph. de la Meurthe, page 73 and following]. Wherefore Calmons, a syncope of the words Calvus mons, being a Latin name, was not to be changed into another Latin one, Mons Vituli, nor, as Ghesquière Acta SS. Belgii, volume I, page 219 and others have it, into another Flemish one, Calfsberg: but the names Calmons and Blootenberg were to be kept.
[13] [but there really was a monastery there, which the monks of St. Bavo inhabited up to the incursions of the Northmen;] On the other hand it pleases me that monastic buildings are related to have been constructed there of old. For, to omit that in the seventeenth century bricks and tiles, the remains of a great building, were dug up at Calvus Mons Ibid. in the place cited, we have as witness Einhard, the notary of Charlemagne, who, reporting the miracles performed at the translation of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, says: But on the fourth feria, that is, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of July, of about the year 828, a certain boy, by name Folchardus, from the monastery which is called Meldradium, who was distorted in legs and feet by a wretched contraction, was cured in the same place before all the people Acta SS. June volume I, page 203. But in these words it is not determined whether the monastery of St. Bavo or that of St. Ermelindis is to be understood. For, as for what is read in her Louvain Life, that the monastery of the blessed confessor Bavo was on the mount which is called the Mount of the Calf, or rather Calvusmons, this rests on another document also: from which at the same time it is established that this house of St. Bavo at Calvus Mons had ceased before the year 998. For in this year died Odwin, abbot of the monastery of St. Bavo at Ghent Annales S. Bavonis Gandensis, in Pertz, Monumenta, volume II, page 188; who, in order to recover the villas of Calvus Mons and Meldert, unjustly taken from his monastery, went to the Emperor Otto, as is established from the letter of Othelbold, likewise abbot of St. Bavo's, to Otgiva, wife of Baldwin IV, count of Flanders, given about the year 1030; in which letter there is read: Our predecessor Odwin, going to the most pious Emperor Otto, obtained certain villas bordering on his empire, some remaining, as they had been unjustly seized there, because his own death intervened: of which the bishop of Liège held back two fiscal ones, Calmund and Meldrada, with their appurtenances [Miræus, Diplom. volume I, page 349 and following; Le Glay, Revue des Opp. diplomatica de Miræus, page 35]. To which is added that St. Bavo, who dwelt in these parts before his conversion to God as the possessor of many villas, bestowed all his possessions for Christ's sake Acta SS. October volume I, page 252. And in these passages indeed the question is of a villa and possessions; but over most villas, especially the larger ones, it was customary to set some monks: whence priories and provostships arose everywhere. And so, if all these things are considered not piecemeal but as a whole, it will be beyond doubt that a smaller community of monks of St. Bavo stood there. This religious house, extinct before the year 998, Bolland judged not without cause Ibid. February volume II, page 258, with the support of Van Gestel Hist. archiepiscopatus Mechliniensis, volume I, page 286, the Reverend Father Moulaert Ibidem and others, to have been overthrown by the Northmen, who devastated Belgium and especially Hesbaye from the year 881 to 891 [Regino, Chronicon at the year 881 and following; in Pertz, volume I, page 592 and following].
[14] and beside them nuns, who afterwards migrated to the Louvain Beguinage. And so, just as it seems to be rightly related by the biographer that a small men's monastery stood at Meldert on Calvus Mons, so I would not wish to deny him credit when he declares that there stood there a girls' cloister also. For again his testimony is not solitary; seeing that it agrees with the old tradition of the Beguines of Louvain, among whom the conviction always flourished that their institute was at the beginning monastic; that their cradle was placed at Meldert; and that thence their community, its laws being changed, was transferred to Louvain. Let Josephus a Ryckel be heard, who in the year 1631 made this public Vita S. Beggæ, Append. notarum, page 237: Certainly the virgins older in age even today testify (those of the Great Beguinage of Louvain), who have always received from their predecessors by an irrefutable tradition, that they were compelled in time of war to migrate from the old lordship of Meldert in Brabant to Louvain. Which the toparchs of the same place likewise confirm from tradition. And this testimony has the greater authority in that from the remotest antiquity to the end of the eighteenth century the Louvain Beguines received revenues and rents at Meldert, or even had them to pay there to the parish church Archives of the church of Meldert and of the Kingdom.
[15] How the nuns of Meldert seem to have come to Louvain. Yet the nuns of Meldert do not seem to have founded the Great Beguinage of Louvain, whose origin Molanus sets forth in these words: Peter of Herenthals, he says Molanus, Hist. Lovaniens. book V, page 350, prior of the abbey of Floreffe in the territory of Namur, who lived in the year 1385, reported in a manuscript chronicle: "In the year of the Lord 1207 many women, old as well as young, despising the world with its delights and desiring to serve the Bridegroom who is in heaven, formed congregations for themselves, living together, and they were called Beguines;" although on the stones of the church it is carved: In the year of the Lord MCCCV this court began. But in the year 1230 other Beguines are read to have come together into the Great Beguinage Van Even, Louvain monumental, page 272; and someone will perhaps suspect that these were the nuns of Meldert. For my part I determine nothing; since amid the wars and tumults by which Brabant was agitated through so many centuries it could quite often have happened that prudence persuaded those nuns, established in the countryside, to take refuge in the fortified town of Louvain: where nowhere could they have more easily found a suitable seat than in the few little houses of the Beguines, especially since they made over their goods to these after death.
[16] [The monks, not of the former but of the renewed cloister of Meldert, are said to have been subject to the nuns.] As for the statement that, while the same nuns were still established at Meldert, the monks who performed sacred rites there were subject to them, this indeed (if the thing itself be regarded) has nothing surprising about it: for, as Cornelius Smet explained a similar institution in connection with the nuns of Nivelles Acta SS. Belgii, volume IV, page 431, in a number of other double monasteries the men were subject not to an abbot but to an abbess; several such are named by Bolland at the Life of St. Hadeloga, virgin Acta SS. February volume I, page 308. Yet I can with difficulty bring myself to believe that the monks of St. Bavo, who were certainly subject to the abbot of Ghent, were at the same time answerable to the abbess of Meldert. But beyond doubt the biographer referred to more ancient times what was being done in his own age. For it is credible that, the convent of Meldert being restored after the departure of the Northmen, the abbess took care to have certain clerics who should perform the sacred rites in the monastery's church; and that these professed the religious life according to the Rule of St. Benedict
in the hands of the abbess; and that they were accordingly answerable to her authority. Monastic history is full of examples of this institution; but I shall report one from the convent of Belisia *, which was only a few leagues distant from Meldert. For in our Museum we have an Evangeliary, written in the tenth century, but afterwards given as a gift to the nuns of Belisia. In an empty space after the Gospel of St. Matthew these words are written: In the year of the Lord's incarnation M.C.XXX, indiction X, in the reign of King Lothar, Mathilda, abbess of Belisia, ruled the cloister of the most blessed confessor Amor, with the brothers and sisters thus named. The names of the brothers joined by the bonds of peace: Eustace, Winricus, Wikerus, Arnold of Batavia; and then follow the names of twenty-four nuns. And this too seems to have been the condition of the renewed girls' cloister of Meldert. What of the fact that St. Boniface, bishop of Lausanne, made his religious profession in the hands of the abbess of the Cistercian convent of La Cambre of the Blessed Virgin Mary near Brussels?
Annotations* Bilsen
§ III. The oratory, spring, and mausoleum of St. Ermelindis, and other embellishments owed to Jacques d'Oyenbrugge.
[Over the tomb of St. Ermelindis an oratory was built, which St. Odwin is said to have frequented] But at Meldert the cult of St. Ermelindis did not perish when that convent ceased. For the sacred body of the most blessed virgin remained there, and the oratory built over her tomb. For that excellent man to whom God revealed her sepulchre, and who in the Meldert slips is called Hugo, the steward of Pepin of Landen, that is, the reeve of the villa of Meldert, after so great a benefit conferred on him by God, at once returned home, as is read in the Utrecht manuscripts, and, taking all that was his own, built a chapel over the virgin's tomb, and living there in sobriety he met the end of his days in peace. Who could say what the fortunes of this oratory have been? It stood in the eleventh or thirteenth century, when there lived in the vicinity St. Odwin, priest and martyr, venerated at Hoegaarden, and treated by our colleagues at the 25th of June; provided that credit be given to the slips which I found among the remains of our Papebroch. For it is there narrated that the most holy man came daily to this oratory of St. Ermelindis in order to offer the sacrifice of the Mass there. Certainly nothing stands in the way, and the disposition of the places is favorable. Nor does Molanus disagree, reporting that he went to the villa of Melceles (or Meldaert, as is thought) to celebrate the divine rites [Molanus, Natales SS. Belgii, at the 25th of June; Acta SS. June volume V, page 149].
THE VILLA OF MELDERT.
Above the gate, the oratory in which the relics of St. Ermelindis were long preserved.
[18] and which Jacques d'Oyenbrugge renewed in the middle of the seventeenth century; In so long a space of time this building must certainly have needed renewing rather often; but the records have perished, which begin to abound only from the beginning of the seventeenth century. Now in the year 1628 Jacques d'Oyenbrugge, with money publicly contributed, rebuilt that church of St. Ermelindis from the foundations; and the same man, because of the innumerable benefits rendered to him and his family by God through the intercession of St. Ermelindis, adorned the interior part of the building at his private expense in the years 1649 and 1650. For in the middle of the oratory he raised a marble mausoleum of black color, about three feet high: on top of which lies an image of St. Ermelindis of Verdun stone: at her head stand two angels of the same stone and at her feet a third, laying her in the tomb. Around the mausoleum itself these words are read, disposed in a set order:
HERE ANGELS BURIED THE BODY OF ST. ERMELINDIS, VIRGIN, IN THE YEAR 600. — DUKE PEPIN OF BRABANT DISINTERRED IT, — AND LAID IT MORE HONORABLY IN THE YEAR 648.
At the head: TO THE SAME HOLY VIRGIN THIS MONUMENT OF THEIR PIETY WAS SET UP IN THE YEAR 1649 BY THE NOBLE AND ILLUSTRIOUS BARON JACQUES D'OYENBRUGHE DE DURAS, LORD OF MELDERT, BOBROUCK, WROLINGHE, AND THE NOBLE AND ILLUSTRIOUS LADY ANNE DE BERLO, HIS WIFE. WISH THEM BOTH WELL.
THE MAUSOLEUM OF ST. ERMELINDIS.
Beneath the mausoleum, the spring of St. Ermelindis.
[19] [in which is the spring of St. Ermelindis, devoutly frequented by the humble, but also by men of the highest nobility] [ab] Beneath the mausoleum itself is a spring, which is called the spring of St. Ermelindis, either because the blessed virgin while living was accustomed to drink its water, or because it began to gush forth at her petition to God. This name was already given to it at the beginning of the fourteenth century, as is established from a diploma of the year 1306 in the cartulary of the abbey of Park, which begins with these words: Be it known to all that Renerus, son of William called Pronincheel, of Meldert, dwelling near Tienen, surrendered with due effestucation one meadow and the adjoining land, situated at Meldert beside the spring of Blessed Ermelindis, as etc. Raymaekers, Brabandsch Museum, page 247 and following. Now from this spring, from the remotest times, people drink water to drive away diseases, weakness of the legs in particular, or use it for rubbing the sick members of the body. This devotion persists, in which there is no more superstition than in catching the shadow of St. Peter, in applying the handkerchief of St. Paul, in touching the hem of Christ; nor do the humble alone share in it, but also the most noble, and there have been seen again and again the most noble Lady Josephine Louise, Countess van der Noot and de Duras, widow of the prince de Ligne, and her husband the most noble Lord Count Charles Ferdinand Joseph d'Oultremont, and their children Eugène Lamoral, prince de Ligne, president of the Belgian Senate, Count Octave Charles Louis d'Oultremont de Duras, Adrien Eugène Paul d'Oultremont de Duras and others, drawing and drinking water with piety from the spring of St. Ermelindis, mindful that the most noble Lady Anne Marie d'Oyenbrugge de Duras, their grandmother, from whom in direct line they are removed partly by the fourth, partly by the fifth degree, when she lay in the cradle despaired of and at the point of death, recovered her health by drinking water from the spring of St. Ermelindis, and that hence they too owe their life to St. Ermelindis.
[20] The same Jacques placed there a new altar The same Jacques d'Oyenbrugge moreover built at his own expense in the same renewed oratory a most beautiful marble altar, seventeen feet high, on which is set a tablet in which is seen carved an image of the Most Holy Trinity and on either side two archangels adoring it; and together with this an image of St. Ermelindis. And in memory of that miracle he willed these words to be cut on the tablet:
TO GOD THE BEST AND GREATEST. TO ST. HERMELINDIS, VIRGIN, HIS MOST REVERED PATRONESS, — THE NOBLE AND ILLUSTRIOUS BARON JACQUES D'OYENBRUGH DE DURAS, LORD OF MELDERT, — WROLINGE, BOMBROUCK, ETC., THIS ALTAR — DEDICATED AND CONSECRATED — IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD MDCL — TO ST. E. At the Epistle horn: HERMELINDIS, DEPART, GUARD INVIOLATE THE VIRGINITY WHICH YOU HAVE VOWED TO GOD. At the Gospel horn:
YOU WILL COME TO AN ISLAND, WHICH YOU WILL CALL MELDRIX; FOR THERE GOD WILL BRING TO FULFILLMENT THE VOW OF YOUR DESIRE.
[21] [and painted images in memory of the daughter marvelously preserved, from whom the noblest houses descend.] In the oratory itself the same Jacques d'Oyenbrugge had four panels painted, and below them their subject cut on white stone in the French language, namely beneath the first window at the Epistle horn: HERMELINDIS AT THE AGE OF TWELVE YEARS HAD ALREADY VOWED HER CHASTITY TO GOD; WHEN SHE WAS ASKED IN MARRIAGE BY A PRINCE OF ROYAL BIRTH, SHE CUT OFF HER HAIR, SO THAT SHE MIGHT NOT BE COMPELLED TO ENTER INTO MATRIMONY.
Beneath the other window, likewise at the Epistle horn: SHE OBTAINS FROM HER PARENTS HER GOODS AND INHERITANCE, THE PRICE OF WHICH SHE GIVES TO THE POOR AND WRETCHED; THEN HER ANGEL LEADS HER INTO A HORRIBLE WILDERNESS; WHERE HER FOOD WAS THE HERBS OF THE PLACE ITSELF. At the Gospel horn beneath the first window these words:
HUGO, A PIOUS MAN, AT SUNRISE FINDS THE SEPULCHRE, WHICH HE MAKES KNOWN TO PEPIN. THERE HE FOUNDS A MONASTERY, THAT GOD MAY BE ADORED IN IT, AND THE MEMORY OF ST. HERMELINDIS BE RECALLED. Likewise at the Gospel horn beneath the other window: THE BARON OF MELDERT GIVES TO HIS DAUGHTER, SOON TO DIE, DROPS OF THE WATER FLOWING BENEATH THIS SACRED MAUSOLEUM; AND AT ONCE BY A MIRACLE SHE IS RESTORED TO HEALTH.
[22] One of these not long ago renewed this oratory. Nor did the descendants of Jacques d'Oyenbrugge wish to fall away from the piety of their forefather. Wherefore, when the oratory of St. Ermelindis was falling into ruin, some years ago the most noble Lady Louise Josephine, Countess van der Noot, widow of the prince de Ligne and wife of the most noble Count Charles Ferdinand d'Oultremont and Wégimont, restored it at her own expense to its former dignity.
§ IV. The relics of St. Ermelindis at Meldert. Their examination in the year 1236; their fortunes in the time of the Belgian tumults of the sixteenth century. The suit and contention of the chapter of St. Gudula, claiming them for itself on account of the lost pledges of its patroness.
The relics of St. Ermelindis, which from of old rested in the church of Meldert, There is no doubt that for a long time the relics of the blessed virgin rested in that oratory of St. Ermelindis; yet they did not remain there, but came at some time to the parish church of Meldert; which, it was the persuasion of the inhabitants at the end of the sixteenth century, was originally built by Pepin of Landen, as is established from the petition which Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge presented to the King of Spain against the chapter of St. Gudula of Brussels Royal Library, Brussels Mss. no. 8925. But this opinion no one up to now has established by firm arguments, for want of documents. But it is more certain that it was dedicated to St. Ermelindis long before the memory of men, and that in it (as we were just pointing out), although an oratory rose over this virgin's sepulchre, destined to contain her relics, the bones of St. Ermelindis rested through many centuries without intermission, yet rather by sufferance than by sure right; as we gather from that same petition of Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge Ibid. in the place cited. For the rest, the old writers have handed down so little about the relics of St. Ermelindis that it is doubtful whether, apart from a brief diploma from which it is established that in the year 1236 a new reliquary was substituted for the old one of St. Ermelindis, any historical record of them survives. Now in the year 1236, when sacrilegious men had despoiled the reliquary of St. Ermelindis, yet without doing injury to the relics themselves, John Alpianus, bishop of Liège, gave command to Robert and Giles, abbots of the Premonstratensian Order of the monasteries of Averbode and Heylissem in Brabant, to place the body of St. Ermelindis in a new reliquary: of which action, when performed, they gave the following testimony, which we have copied from an apograph of the church of Meldert and from the slips of our predecessors.
[24] in the year 1236 they were examined by the abbots of Everbode and Heylissem; Robert and Giles, by the divine mercy abbots of Everbode and Heylisem, to all the devout in Christ forever, prayers. We have received the command of our venerable father the lord bishop of Liège, that we should place again in a new reliquary the relics of Blessed Ermelindis, virgin, at Meldrix, from the reliquary despoiled by sacrilegious men, in which it had been hidden from the time of Duke Pepin. That this has been done by us this letter, confirmed with our seals, declares. Done in the year of the Lord 1236, in the month of April, in the reign of Frederick, emperor of the Romans, John being of the church of Liège
presiding. Place of the seal. The form of this reliquary, as we shall see below, was described by his Eminence Cardinal Sterckx, archbishop of Mechelen, when in the year 1849 he examined the relics of St. Ermelindis.
[25] at all times held in the greatest veneration by the people of Meldert. With how great a veneration the people of Meldert and their neighbors honored the relics of St. Ermelindis may be gathered from this, that from the remotest times down to the end of the sixteenth century, every third year, a most solemn procession on the first three days of Pentecost week was held in this manner, that the relics of St. Ermelindis were carried with great pomp successively to the neighboring parishes and churches: and eight or nine thousand people attended this procession. Moreover, every year on the Monday of Pentecost Royal Library, Brussels Mss. no. 8925, a solemnity which is still observed today, the relics of St. Ermelindis are carried through the parish of Meldert with a great concourse of people, neighbors also. Add that so many and so great gifts were brought to St. Ermelindis that when the nave of the church, the tower, and the top of the tower were being repaired by the chapter of St. Bartholomew, the alms of the faithful abundantly sufficed for the remaining expenses of the church and chapel Archives of the church of Meldert.
[26] The same relics Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge in the year 1567, But since the relics of St. Ermelindis were laid up in a very precious reliquary, they were rather often, especially in the sixteenth century, in danger from the assault of heretics. It happened indeed fortunately that the toparch of Meldert, Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge, took them under his protection and transferred them to the diocese of Liège or to his castle chapel. For this chapel, built in his manor by Henry of Opwinde (as it seems) at the end of the fourteenth century, was rebuilt in the year 1845 by the most noble Count Charles Ferdinand Joseph d'Oultremont, husband of Josephine Louise, Countess van der Noot, heiress of the lordship of Meldert, when with truly royal magnificence he renewed the castle of Meldert from the foundations, except for the tower (in which the relics of St. Ermelindis long rested). Now in the year 1567, when the first Belgian tumults had arisen, Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge took under his protection in his castle chapel the vestments of the parish church, and its other ornaments, and the reliquary of St. Ermelindis, and shortly afterwards, peace being restored, he put them back in their former place Ibid. in the place cited.
[27] in the year 1568, But in the following year William, prince of Orange, attended by a numerous army, began war against the Spaniards in Brabant. Wherefore that same Guillaume, justly fearing that the foreign soldiers might do injury to the relics of St. Ermelindis, himself with an armed band carried them to the castle of Landelys, the domain of Jacques de Corswarem, the father of his wife, in the territory of Liège, entrusting the guard of his house to about thirty men: and when the rebels learned that it was deprived of its usual defenders, they laid it waste with fire and sword. Hence Guillaume suffered a loss of twenty thousand florins (whose value today would easily rise to one hundred thousand francs) and bore it patiently. And when the tumults were quieted, his first care was to restore the reliquary and the other sacred objects to the church and the inhabitants of the place Ibid. in the place cited.
[28] in the year 1572 Yet the peace was not lasting. For in the year 1572, when the prince of Orange again made war on the people of Brabant, the same Guillaume for a second time carried the relics of St. Ermelindis to Liège, to the house of his brother Charles d'Oyenbrugge de Duras, canon of the church of Liège. When the war was finished, he again returned them as soon as possible to the people of Meldert Ibid. in the place cited.
[29] and in the year 1576, while the heretics were raging, he placed them in safety. But in the year 1576, when new tumults had been stirred up in Brabant, Guillaume again, not knowing how to spare labor on behalf of St. Ermelindis and attended by many armed men, carried her relics to the castle of Landelys Ibid. in the place cited.
[30] [The same Guillaume, against the canons of St. Gudula of Brussels, who claimed for themselves the reliquary and oratory of St. Ermelindis,] And in this castle the relics of St. Ermelindis were being kept when the dean and chapter of the collegiate church of St. Gudula in the city of Brussels, on the advice of Bertin Hoyoul, rector of the oratory of St. Ermelindis, urgently requested them for themselves from the King of Spain, with this letter given to the king, which we have rendered from French into Latin: To the King, the dean and chapter of the venerable church of St. Gudula in the city of Brussels. Since the church of St. Gudula has been despoiled by the rebels of all its beauty, adornment, and silver ornaments, and has hence suffered incredible losses, and since your Majesty can dispose of the right of patronage over the oratory of St. Ermelindis, cousin and kinswoman of St. Gudula, founded at Meldert near Louvain in Brabant by your predecessors (the dukes of Brabant), who gave to it eighteen bonniers of arable land, on the added condition that on their behalf the sacrifice of the Mass should be offered six times each week; and since this oratory possesses a reliquary of the weight of a thousand florins, in which the bones and relics of St. Ermelindis are deposited, and which Guillaume de Duras, toparch of Meldert, now holds in the castle of Landelys, in the territory of Liège; therefore the dean and chapter of St. Gudula humbly ask that the oratory of St. Ermelindis, together with the things which we have said belong to it, be assigned, given, and joined to the church of St. Gudula. For which you have the power by virtue of a bull given to you. Moreover we have in agreement with us the rector of the oratory of St. Ermelindis, Bertin Hoyoul, who has ordered Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge to deliver the reliquary into the hands of the chapter of St. Gudula, or rather into yours, O King Ibid. in the place cited.
[31] he pleaded the cause at his own expense. A scarcely credible audacity appears in these prayers; yet they were heard. Wherefore on the 27th of November of the same year Philip II ordered Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge to give to the church of St. Gudula both the silver reliquary and the relics of St. Ermelindis deposited in the castle of Landelys, unless perhaps he had reasons to offer why he should defer obedience. Guillaume therefore sent a letter written in French to the king, in which he declared that the relics of St. Ermelindis ought not to be taken away from the parish of Meldert, since this blessed virgin had spent almost her whole life at Meldert near the spring which is named after her, at God's command given through an angel, and after her happy passing had been given burial by the hands of angels in a lower place, three bowshots farther off. And in that place Pepin, after the parish church had been built by him, had ordered an oratory to be built over the sacred sepulchre itself in honor of St. Ermelindis. Hence the origins of the parish and lordship of Meldert. Thither too a great many flocked from all Brabant. Here countless lame, blind, and other sick people, or even those possessed by a demon, recovered complete health. "Moreover," Guillaume adds, "I and the inhabitants of Meldert, to our great loss, have rather often in these calamitous times snatched the reliquary and relics of St. Ermelindis from the hands of the impious." From which things he concludes that the dean and chapter of St. Gudula, against all right, claim as their own the reliquary of St. Ermelindis and the other things pertaining to it, and that they are even unmindful both of the divine commandment, Thou shalt not covet, and of a number of rules of law: unless it be said that it is lawful for other churches, despoiled no less recently than St. Gudula's, to demand as their own the reliquary and body of St. Gudula and the Most Holy Sacrament called Miraculous: both of which most sacred pledges are carefully preserved in the church of St. Gudula.
[32] and he won it. To this petition of Guillaume the dean and chapter of St. Gudula opposed, besides the reasons already adduced, that the oratory of St. Ermelindis had been built from perpetual gifts made formerly not to the parish church, but to the altar of the most holy virgin in the parish church; and that the reliquary of St. Ermelindis had never been enriched by the parish church, but rather the parish church by the oratory of St. Ermelindis. Wherefore, they said, the king, as patron of the oratory, without injuring any rights, can transfer to the church of St. Gudula at Brussels both the reliquary of St. Ermelindis and her oratory and the other things pertaining to it. But if the inhabitants of Meldert say that without their consent and that of their neighbors the reliquary of St. Ermelindis is not to be given to the church of St. Gudula; it follows clearly from this that it can be done with their approval. And if this is true, much more can the reliquary of St. Ermelindis be assigned to the church of St. Gudula with the consent of the king and his council. The dean and chapter added, first, that for the people of Meldert, as formerly, a wooden reliquary would suffice, or the sepulchre of St. Ermelindis alone, since earth taken from it restored the sick to health; and next, that if of the six Masses previously to be celebrated each week, three were celebrated by the parish priest, no loss would be caused to the parish church. And for these reasons the dean and chapter contended that the reliquary and fields of St. Ermelindis could not be denied to the church of St. Gudula Archives of the church of Meldert. This demand did not please the king's privy council; which judged that the reliquary of St. Ermelindis should not be taken away from the people of Meldert, nor the fields of the oratory of Meldert be joined to the church of St. Gudula. And this suit too (for it had to come to the court of law) Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge undertook at his own expense and won [Archive of the church of Meldert; Compaignon, Vie de S. Ermelinde, dedicatory epistle].
§ V. The fortunes of the relics of St. Ermelindis in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The agreement concerning them between the parish priest and the toparch of Meldert.
[In the year 1535, in time of war, Jacques d'Oyenbrugge preserves the relics of St. Ermelindis.] Following in his father's footsteps, Jacques d'Oyenbrugge likewise took up the protection of the relics of St. Ermelindis. This was first seen when in the year 1635 the French and the Dutch, having made a treaty, made war on Philip IV, King of Spain, in order to take Belgium from him. For as soon as they had invaded Brabant, laying waste with fire and sword the monasteries and churches in the nearby town of Tienen, and not sparing even virgins consecrated to God, Jacques d'Oyenbrugge de Duras, baron of Meldert, not without reason fearing for the relics of St. Ermelindis, held them in the castle chapel in time of war [Champaigne, Vie de S. Ermelinde, dedicatory epistle; Betz, Hist. de Tirlemont, volume I, page 153 and following].
[34] [In the year 1669 the parish priest of Meldert contended with unhappy success that the relics of St. Ermelindis should be placed not in the castle, but in the church.] But in the year 1669 the parish priest of Meldert left no stone unturned so that thereafter the relics of St. Ermelindis should be kept without interruption in the parish church: on the other side Anne d'Oyenbrugge offered a petition to Charles II, King of Spain and duke of Brabant, showing that for many years they had been laid up in the castle chapel of Meldert, and that by her ancestors in the time of the Belgian tumults and wars they had been transferred, at peril of life, either to their castle or to other places, lest they should suffer any harm. The pious woman added that those same ancestors of hers had at all times taken up the protection of the relics of St. Ermelindis, so much so that against the chapter of St. Gudula of Brussels, which claimed them for itself, at their very great
expense they successfully entered upon a suit, obtaining from the King of Spain a judgment by which it was ordained that the relics of St. Ermelindis should not be taken away from the castle chapel of the barons of Meldert Archive of the church of Meldert.
[35] [He nevertheless obtains from the barons in the year 1681 that on certain conditions they should rest for a time in the church.] But when Engelbert, baron of Meldert, in the year 1681, and then his wife, Marie Ernestine de Berlo, in the year 1686, had departed this life, and their children Anne Aimée Josèphe and Madeleine Françoise, being wards, were not going to live in the castle of Meldert for many years, William Servais, parish priest of Meldert, asked the guardians of the wards that he might be permitted to keep the relics of St. Ermelindis in the parish church. The guardians did not refuse, but on certain conditions which the parish priest accepted, namely that, in acknowledgment that the castle and castle chapel had been from the remotest times the customary seat of the relics of St. Ermelindis, the parish priest should each year, on the third day before the Monday of Pentecost, transfer them thither, where they should remain at the pleasure of the guardians or vicars; the celebration of the customary number of Masses in the chapel not being omitted. Moreover the relics of St. Ermelindis were to be enclosed by the parish priest at the expense of the church within iron grilles, the key of which Roger van der Noot, baron of Carloo, the other guardian, or the one acting in his stead, should keep. It was also enjoined on the parish priest that, if because of war or tumults danger threatened the relics, he should see to their being transferred to a safe place Archive of the church of Meldert. When this agreement was entered into between the guardians of the wards and the parish priest of Meldert, there were attached to the reliquary of St. Ermelindis a silver leg, a silver plate on which was engraved the image of a woman in supplication before St. Ermelindis, a silver heart, a silver foot, a silver breast, a rosary of red coral with a gilded silver medal hanging from it, four other medals, and a small cross: so many votive offerings, beyond doubt, presented to St. Ermelindis in memory or in hope of benefits Ibid. in the place cited.
[36] The reliquary of St. Ermelindis is carried to Louvain in the year 1705, The parish priests of Meldert stood by their promises; and when at the beginning and in the middle of the eighteenth century the relics of St. Ermelindis were placed in danger, they devoted all their effort to seeing that no injury should be done to them. Hear, reader, the history of the first danger. In the year 1701, as everyone generally knows, Charles II, King of Spain, dying, had by his testament appointed as heir of his kingdoms Philip of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV, King of France. Hence the war between Louis XIV and the King of England, and also the Dutch Republic and a number of princes of Germany: all of whom, being hostile to the King of France, were called by one name the Allies. These, after they had from the year 1701 to 1705 gained possession of almost all Belgium, broke through the French army which was occupying Brabant, took Tienen and Zoutleeuw, towns of Brabant, and devastated the church of Meldert and the other churches round about: then in the following year they again cut down the army of the French in the battle of Ramillies, and once more despoiled the church of Meldert. But in neither pillage did the relics of St. Ermelindis suffer any harm: for even before the first irruption of the Allies the people of Meldert had transferred them to Louvain, and had placed them in the church of the Beguinage above the statue of the Blessed Mary of the Seven Sorrows: where they remained until the peace made between the French and the Dutch in the year 1713 [Leven van de H. Ermelindis, page 18, Louvain edition of 1728; Saelmaekers, Vie de S. Ermelinde, page 28].
[37] [and likewise in the year 1744, lest it should suffer injury from the belligerents.] But in the year 1744, when Belgium had already for a number of years passed to the emperors of Germany, a deadly war blazed up between Maria Theresa, Empress of Germany, and Louis XV, King of the French: on which occasion arms were again mingled in Belgium. Without any delay the people of Meldert, in order to protect the reliquary of St. Ermelindis from all injury, once more transferred it to Louvain. Hear the testimony of this, turned from Flemish into Latin: On this day, the 27th of May of the year 1744, the parish priest, mayor, and aldermen of the parish and barony of Meldert transferred the reliquary of the relics of St. Ermelindis, virgin, to the Great Beguinage of Louvain, and placed it above the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Seven Sorrows. By this present letter the pastor and mistresses of the said Beguinage acknowledge that the reliquary of the relics of St. Ermelindis has been handed over to them, with the obligation of restoring it to the church of Meldert when they are asked to do so. — Done at Louvain as above. — G. De Laure, pastor of the Great Beguinage of Louvain. D. Peeters. A. Verhaeren. M. H. Van Cruyninghen. Isabella Mertens.
[38] How they were preserved from the year 1792 to 1803. In the year 1792, when the French burst into Belgium and everywhere laid impious hands on sacred buildings, the inhabitants of Meldert, resolved at the peril of their lives to keep the relics of their patroness whole from all injury, hid them under the earth on a hill behind the water mill; from which hiding place they did not bring them out until the year 1803, on the feast of Pentecost. Then, peace having been restored to the church, these sacred pledges, first laid in the chapel of St. Quirinus, which is built at the far end of the parish, were brought back in triumph with the greatest pomp to the parish church, countless faithful of Christ flocking together from every side. But now we come to the examinations of these same relics.
§ VI. The examination of the relics of St. Ermelindis in the year 1605, and the list of them.
[In the year 1605 Rotarius, archpriest of Tienen, at the command of Mathias Hovius, archbishop of Mechelen,] In the year 1605 the most pious governess of the Belgians, the Archduchess Isabella, daughter of Philip II, King of Spain, and with her the princess of Arenberg, asked that something of the relics of St. Ermelindis should be given to them. Mathias Hovius, archbishop of Mechelen, wishing to satisfy these desires, charged Alexander Rotarius, archpriest and rural dean of the district of Tienen, on the 24th of October of the year 1605, to examine the relics of St. Ermelindis, and to extract some portions from them. We produce in this place an apograph of the letter of Mathias Hovius, found in the cartulary of the church of Meldert. Matthias etc. to the venerable man, our beloved in Christ, Lord Alexander Rotarius, dean of Christianity of the district of Tienen, greeting in the Lord. For reasons moving our mind we have thought fit to commit to you, and we commit by these presents, that in the presence of witnesses, with due reverence, in the church of Meldert you open the case in which the relics of St. Ermelindis are laid up and preserved, that you take from them some bone at the request of their most illustrious Highnesses, and that by an inventory, to be signed by your own hand and that of Lord Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge de Duras, temporal lord of Meldert, and of the pastor of the said place, you set down the remaining bones separately, and duly close them again, and give testimony in your own hand of each of the things thus done, and faithfully write back to us what you have done in the matter.
[40] examines the relics of St. Ermelindis Having received this letter, Rotarius, promptly obeying, betook himself to Meldert, and there, in the presence of Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge and his son Jacques, and also the mayor and aldermen, examined the relics of St. Ermelindis: of which juridical act, as we read in our apographs and those of Meldert, he gave the following testimony, rendered from French into Latin: We, Alexander Rotarius, archpriest and rural dean of the district of Tienen, John Pinson, curate and parish priest of the parish church of Meldert, affirm and testify by this letter that, by the license and command of the most reverend and most illustrious lord archbishop of Mechelen of the 24th of October of the year 1605, in the presence of the lord of that place (Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge), and of his elder son the lord of Bombrouck, and likewise of the mayor and aldermen of Meldert, we opened the reliquary of the body and relics of St. Ermelindis, virgin, princess of Brabant and patroness of the church of Meldert, and also enumerated all the relics. Moreover from these we extracted half a rib, and entrusted it to Lord Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge, who had earnestly asked that it might be allowed to give it to the princess of Arenberch, who was ardently seeking it. In testimony of the truth of which matter we have set our name and seal to this charter. On the 27th of October of the year one thousand six hundred and five, Alexander Rotarius, dean of Christianity of the district of Tienen.
[41] and he makes a list of them. Moreover Rotarius drew up an index of all the relics of St. Ermelindis: an apograph of which is found both among the slips collected by Bolland and among the old charters of the church of Meldert even today: indeed the autograph itself was preserved down to our times in the archive of Mechelen; and this we make public in this place: Inventory of the relics of St. Ermelindis, virgin, resting in the church of the village of Meldaert in the diocese of Mechelen, made on the 27th of October 1605, written by Lord and Master Alexander Rotarius, archpriest of the district of Tienen. — In the first place, the whole head with its jaw and 10 teeth. — Item, two shoulders or two great bones of the shoulder blades. — Item, yet another part of the head. — Item, eighteen bones of the spine, because afterwards one more was found. — Item, XVI ribs together with parts of broken ribs; and there are eleven nearly whole, and 14 parts, both large and small. — Item, four great bones, of which two are thighbones and the other two shinbones, with two lesser bones, which are the front parts of the shins. — Item, two arms with their attached long bones, 6 in number. — Item, yet shorter bones, belonging to the arms or feet. — Item, the lower part of the spine with eight openings, of which the eighth was broken. — Item, yet one small piece of the spine, of the length of one finger. — Item, yet two parts resembling shins. — Item, yet two thick bones of the length of one finger, which seem to be bones of the heel. — Item, eight bones which seem to be bones of the joints of the knees and elbows. — Item, yet a great bone, in which the shinbones or arms turn. — Item, two small bones of the neck above the breast. — Item, one bone belonging to the neck about the ears, or ear bone. — Item, yet one triangular bone of the size of half a palm. — Item, seven small white pieces like lime, not indeed bones, but (as it appeared) cartilage or vessel. — Item, eleven joints of the hands, together with one which the lord of Meldaert carries in honor of God and of the Lady Virgin Ermelindis for protection. — Item, yet eight small pieces of the knuckles of the hands or feet. — Item, yet nine small pieces or fragments of the brain. — Item, yet four tiny pieces of the shinbones, of which the fourth was a little smaller. — Item, a small bundle in which were tied relics from the sepulchre of St. Lawrence. — Item, various small pieces of garments. — Item, parts of the veil of St. Gertrude. — For the Most Serene Infanta there was cut off one principal round of the spine at her Serenity's request. — And a small piece of a rib for the prince of Arenbergh. — Done in the church of Meldaert, in the year, month, and day written above.
Alexander Rotarius, archpriest of Tienen. — G.
d'Oyenbrugge de Duras. — John Pinsonius, pastor, testifies.
§ VII. New examinations of the relics of St. Ermelindis in the years 1848 and 1849. A new reliquary. A most solemn translation. Miracles.
[The old reliquary being irreparably battered and sold to the English, a new one is made;] After the examination of the relics of St. Ermelindis made by Rotarius in the year 1605, the reliquary remained locked until in the year 1818 a new one was substituted for it. For that earlier one was so battered by age that it could not be repaired by any art. Wherefore the making of a new one was discussed; but the matter stuck for want of money, when in the year 1847 certain Englishmen offered for the old case a price not to be despised. But the conservators of public monuments * intervened, forbidding the reliquary, as a Belgian monument of the thirteenth century, either to be altered or to pass into other hands, especially foreign ones. To them the people of Meldert answered that this same thing was their own wish, and that they therefore asked the royal minister himself to acquire the case for a public museum at the price offered by the English. To this the Belgian government did not assent. It remained, therefore, that it should grant the people of Meldert by royal decree the power of selling the reliquary of St. Ermelindis, even to foreigners. At length it granted this power, and so the reliquary was handed over to the English at the price of 3600 francs. A goldsmith of Mechelen, by name Vanbever, made a new one at the price of 6000 francs; of which the third part was given as a gift by Louise Josephine van der Noot, Countess d'Oultremont.
[43] [on which occasion the archbishop of Mechelen orders the relics of St. Ermelindis to be examined in the year 1848.] Meanwhile his Eminence Cardinal Engelbert Sterckx, archbishop of Mechelen, ordered the sacred relics to be taken out of the old case and laid in a certain temporary wooden one, of which he gave the following testimony, which we report from the autograph: Engelbert Sterckx, by the divine mercy Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church of the title of St. Bartholomew on the Island, archbishop of Mechelen, primate of Belgium, etc. To all who shall see this letter, greeting in the Lord. Whereas the Reverend Lord Weckx, pastor at Meldert, has set forth to us that the reliquary in which are contained the relics of St. Ermelindis, virgin, adorned with various and ancient ornaments of silver and of gilded copper, and also with smaller statues of the twelve apostles, and with two others a little larger, namely one of our Savior Jesus Christ and the other of St. Ermelindis, is so worn and deformed by age that it stands in need of great repair, and has therefore asked of us license to remove for a time the relics of St. Ermelindis from the aforesaid reliquary, so that it may be repaired or made anew; we, wishing to satisfy this pious and praiseworthy desire, have specially deputed for this purpose the venerable Lord Augustin Gennere, canon of our metropolitan church and our secretary; who, on the twenty-ninth day of the month of September of this year, in the church of Meldert, before the very reverend Lord Norbert André François Hamoir, dean of the district of Jodoigne and pastor at Beauvechain, and also the Reverend Lord aforesaid, pastor of Meldert, and his vice-pastor the Reverend Lord Pierre Liévin Van de Poel, and various parishioners of Meldert, found the aforesaid reliquary very firmly closed on every side and in its lower part secured with three locks; and, since keys no longer existed for opening the said locks, their bolts being forced back, the iron fastening the aforesaid locks having first been removed and cut through with a file, in the reliquary itself, wooden in the front part, he found the relics of St. Ermelindis, namely the head and a great many bones, and various fragments of silk and other materials, which he forthwith laid again in a wooden pyx, bound about with silken bands sealed with our seal impressed in Spanish wax, and placed it on the altar of the same church. And that there may be sure and undoubted credit for all these things, we have caused the present letter to be issued under our sign and seal and the hand of our secretary on the sixth day of the month of October of the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
†
PLACE OF THE SEAL
Engelbert, card. archb. of Mechelen.
By mandate of his Eminence, A. Gennere, secretary.
[44] [He himself on the 22nd of July of the year 1849 solemnly lays them in a wooden reliquary and in a new one of gilded copper,] Now when in the year 1849 the relics of St. Ermelindis were to be laid in the new reliquary, his Eminence himself came to Meldert and examined them again, as is clear from his following words, which again we recite from the autograph: Engelbert Sterckx, by the divine mercy Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church of the title of St. Bartholomew on the Island, archbishop of Mechelen, primate of Belgium, etc. To all who shall see this letter, greeting in the Lord. By the tenor of these presents we certify and attest that the sacred relics of Blessed Ermelindis, virgin, described above and taken out of the old reliquary almost consumed by age, of which we have reserved a rather notable part to be laid in a reliquary for the use of the church of Meldert, we have reverently laid in a new wooden chest on this 22nd day of the month of July of the year 1849 in the church of Meldert, in the presence of many priests, noblemen, and a countless multitude of the faithful; the chief of whom have signed this letter with us. We have secured the aforesaid chest on both sides with our seal, and have enclosed its key in a paper likewise sealed with our seal. In faith of which things we have signed these presents and secured them with our seal, and we have laid one copy of them in the aforesaid chest beside the sacred relics, and delivered the other to the church council.
†
PLACE OF THE SEAL
Engelbert, card. archb. of Mechelen.
— By mandate of his Eminence, A. Gennere, secretary.
La Comtesse d'Oultremont
Comtesse de Duras.
Le Comte Ch. d'Oultremont.
La Comtesse Marie d'Oultremont.
Le Comte Adrien d'Oultremont de Duras. —
F. J. De Boeck, bourguemestre.
Hamoir, pastor at Bauvechin and dean of the district of Jodoigne.
J. Weckx, pastor at Meldert.
J. Th. Lanen, pastor at Cumptich.
On the same day the same Eminence, as he himself left in testimony, laid them in the new case, wooden within, of magnificently gilded copper without, very beautifully and most artfully adorned with many ornaments of gilded copper and of silver, and with very many gems and various images, and also with smaller statues of the twelve apostles, and two others, a little larger, of St. Ermelindis, likewise of silver; which recalls, if not the form, certainly the memory of the former reliquary, with this difference however, that in the former one the statues of the twelve apostles sat on seats, whereas in the new one the statues of the same stand around the case; as may be seen in the adjoining picture.
[45] [and a few days afterwards he draws up a public instrument on the entire celebration.] His Eminence the Cardinal willed that the solemnity performed at Meldert on the 22nd of July of the year 1849 should be described in a public instrument; of which this is the form: Engelbert Sterckx, by the divine mercy Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church of the title of St. Bartholomew on the Island, archbishop of Mechelen, primate of Belgium, etc. To all who shall see, read, and likewise hear the present letter, everlasting greeting in the Lord. Let it be manifest to all everywhere that in the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, on the twenty-second day of the month of July, we betook ourselves to the parish of Meldert, in order, in accordance with the wish of the reverend lord pastor and the people of that place, to enclose the relics of St. Ermelindis, virgin, in the new case. Accordingly, vested in pontifical ornaments, at the second hour after noon, accompanied by the clergy and the faithful, we went in procession from the pastor's house to the church of the said place, and the hymn Veni Creator being sung there, the pyx spoken of in the attached letter of the 6th of October 1848, containing the sacred relics of the glorious virgin Ermelindis, was brought before us in the choir of the church and set upon a table. Then in the presence of the venerable Lord Augustin Gennere, canon of our metropolitan church and our secretary, of the very reverend Lord Norbert André François Hamoir, pastor at Beauvechain and dean of the district of Jodoigne; of François Weckx, pastor at Meldert, and of various pastors and others of the clergy of the neighboring parishes, and also of the most noble Lady Josephine Louise, Countess van der Noot de Duras, widow of the prince de Ligne, and her husband the most noble Lord Charles Ferdinand Joseph, Count d'Oultremont, and their daughter Marie Émilie, Countess d'Oultremont, and son Adrien Eugène Paul, Count d'Oultremont de Duras, and moreover of Lord François Joseph De Boeck, burgomaster, and other men of the aldermanry, and the church councilors; a multitude of every condition and estate standing by, finally, throughout the whole church, we opened the aforesaid pyx and found the sacred relics described in the attached inventory made by the very reverend Lord Rotarius, dean of the district of Tienen, deputed for this purpose by the most illustrious and most reverend Lord Mathias Hovius, our predecessor in the archiepiscopal see of Mechelen,
THE CHEST OF THE RELICS OF ST. ERMELINDIS
THE ORATORY OF ST. ERMELINDIS.
in order that satisfaction might be given to the wish of the most serene princes of Belgium Albert and Isabella, who were requesting some bone of St. Ermelindis, as is established from the acts of our archbishopric. Then we exposed the sacred relics to the sight and veneration of all those standing by, and venerated them with the clergy, and laid a bone of the length of one finger in a reliquary for the use of the church of Meldert, and reserved some small pieces, but the head and the principal bones we secured with our seal, and when the psalm Laudate Dominum in sanctis ejus had been sung and incensation made, we wrapped the aforesaid sacred relics in white silk cloths, and duly bound them about with a red silken linen, and again secured them on the outside likewise with our seal. Finally the wooden casket, with white silk cloth on the inside, partly gilded on the outside, and adorned with this inscription, The body of St. Ermelindis, V., we duly blessed according to the formula described in the Roman Pontifical, and reverently laid the aforesaid sacred relics in it. This casket, secured on both sides with our seal and duly closed with one lock, was laid in the new case, wooden within, of magnificently gilded copper without, very beautifully and most artfully adorned with many ornaments of gilded copper and of silver, and with very many gems and various images, and also with smaller statues of the twelve Apostles and two others, a little larger, of St. Ermelindis, likewise of silver. These things being done, and a solemn procession being made through the parish with these sacred relics, and the prayer of St. Ermelindis being recited by us, we solemnly sang the hymn Te Deum. In faith of all which things we have commanded this letter to be issued and have caused it to be delivered to the church council of the church of Meldert. — Given at Mechelen under our sign and seal and the hand of our secretary, on the twenty-eighth day of the month of July of the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.
†
PLACE OF THE SEAL
Engelbert, card. archb. of Mechelen.
— By mandate of his Eminence, A. Gennere, secretary.
[46] Many miracles were wrought through the intercession of St. Ermelindis in ancient With how great joy the people of Meldert saw the relics of St. Ermelindis examined again is difficult to say. Nor is it surprising: for, as is plain from the Life of St. Ermelindis itself, from the remotest times sight has been restored to the blind, hearing to the deaf, walking to the lame, and health and safety to all who knock; demons also, going forth from the bodies they possessed, unwillingly betray by their expulsion the virgin's merit: finally, whoever has faithfully touched her sepulchre, sound
he becomes from whatever infirmity holds him; so much so that, as is read in the Life by Compaignon, it was a popular axiom throughout Brabant: At the sepulchre of St. Ermelindis all ills cease. But (as happens) these things were handed down by the mouth of the people; particular benefits were proclaimed by all, and they fostered and sustained the public confidence in the intercession of Bl. Ermelindis with God; but none were committed to writing: so much so that, had not Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge recorded some miracles wrought in his time through the intercession of St. Ermelindis in the petition of which we spoke in § V, scarcely one of the ancient ones would be known to us. Now that most noble man relates that about the year 1680 he and many others saw a house in the hamlet of Babelom of the parish of Meldert burning violently; and that when its master Peter de Beys had thrown into it earth from the sepulchre of St. Ermelindis, the fire was suddenly extinguished. This narrative the same Guillaume repeated in the suit which he had with the dean and chapter of St. Gudula. In that same petition we read that a man possessed by the devil, at about the same time, was suddenly delivered in the sight of all, when in the parish church of Meldert he heard the holy life of St. Ermelindis set forth from the sacred pulpit by Brother Bartholomew, an Augustinian Hermit of the convent of Louvain. Guillaume reports moreover in the same place that many lame people, or those suffering also from other incurable diseases, were restored to health at the sepulchre of St. Ermelindis: indeed that not a few others, after a nine-day devotion, prayer, or pilgrimage made in honor of St. Ermelindis, received no small relief. In connection with the spring of St. Ermelindis I have already touched on the marvel wrought in the year 1606 in favor of the house of Oyenbrugge. It seems that it should be reported in this place a little more explicitly. Anne d'Oyenbrugge de Duras, daughter of Jacques d'Oyenbrugge de Duras, lord of Meldert, at the age of one year, stricken with a deadly disease, had for three days been taking no food, and was so near to death that Cornelius Stas, a surgeon of Louvain, exceedingly skilled in the medical art, affirmed that she would die within two hours. Wherefore her father, who burned with a wonderful piety toward St. Ermelindis, ordered water from her spring to be brought to him; of which he poured three drops in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, a fourth in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a fifth, invoking St. Ermelindis, on the lips of his dying little daughter. When she had drunk these she was suddenly healed. This event Jacques d'Oyenbrugge willed to be cut on stone in the oratory of St. Ermelindis, and to be subjoined to her Life by Compaignon.
[47] and in more recent times. I have also learned from the venerable François Weckx that a certain blind woman, from the neighboring parish of Tourinne-la-Grosse, when in the year 1803 she touched with her hand the reliquary of St. Ermelindis, which was about to be carried from the chapel of St. Quirinus to the parish church, suddenly recovered her sight. On the same day, as I learned from the mouth of the same parish priest, a young girl who, sitting on a horse beside her brother, had come to Meldert from Rillaar (it is a parish lying between Aarschot and Diest), was through the intercession of St. Ermelindis so perfectly delivered from weakness of the limbs that with the other faithful of Christ she accompanied the relics of St. Ermelindis all the way to the church. The same venerable man adds that he has again and again been told by men worthy of all credit, dwelling both at Meldert and in the neighboring parishes, that they had been healed of incurable diseases, especially of weakness of the legs, when they had sought the patronage of St. Ermelindis. On the same authority rests the following miracle. In the year 1845 John Baptist De Haes, born and living at Baal, a parish near Aarschot, had gone blind in the seventeenth year of his age: and for two years no effort was spared in vain to restore his sight. At length he was led by his pious parents on the Monday of Pentecost of the year 1847 to Meldert, in order to recover his sight through the intercession of St. Ermelindis: on which day, after many prayers poured out in places dedicated to St. Ermelindis, as he was returning home he was suddenly delivered from his blindness. From that time John De Haes every year on the second day of Pentecost comes to Meldert to give perpetual thanks for the benefit received from St. Ermelindis. Of which fact most of the inhabitants of Meldert are still witnesses.
Annotations* Commission des monuments et des beaux-arts.
§ VIII. The benefices erected at Meldert in honor of St. Ermelindis. Their fortunes and suppression.
[That in the thirteenth century there was a benefice of St. Ermelindis at Meldert we gather from ancient diplomas,] After having spoken of the oratory of St. Ermelindis at Meldert, of the parish church of St. Ermelindis, and of the relics of the blessed virgin preserved in it, we must now pass on to the ecclesiastical benefices which the grateful piety of men erected in the same parish for her praise and honor. Yet of their beginnings we can scarcely bring forward anything certain. Two very ancient records indeed, in which mention is made of some benefice of St. Ermelindis, were excerpted for us from the cartulary of his abbey by the venerable John Dillen, canon regular of the Premonstratensian abbey of Park near Louvain. The earlier is a diploma given in the year of the Lord 1281, on the Monday before the Ascension of the Lord, to certify that Gilbert de Bavinchove had before the aldermen of Louvain ratified a donation of four and a half bonniers of land and of a rent of three shillings, made to the canons of Park by William, formerly chaplain of the altar of St. Ermelindis. The other is a testament which Arnold of Rotselaar, priest and perpetual chaplain of the altar of Blessed Ermelindis, situated in the church of Meldert, drew up in the year of the Lord 1285, on the sixth day before the Ides of April, and by which he irrevocably conferred, gave, or bequeathed to the canons of Park all his possessions lying at Meldert.
[49] [and in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries several others, from three polyptychs of the diocese of Liège.] We have moreover before our eyes three polyptychs of the old diocese of Liège, of which we have made mention earlier and in which the benefices of Meldert are listed. In the first, which was drawn up in the year 1441, these words are read: Court of Meldert. — Chapel of St. Hermelindis. — Chapel of St. Catherine. — Chapel of the Blessed Mary. In the second, or that of Park, which was drawn up after the year 1457 and before the year 1462 (for in it the chapter of St. Sulpicius of Diest, erected not long before, namely in the year 1457, is mentioned, and the chapter of Aarschot, erected in the year 1462, is omitted), we read: Church of Meldert. — Altar of St. Catherine or of the Mass of souls. — Altar of Bl. Ermelindis in the chapel. — Altar of Bl. Ermelindis in the church. — Altar in the court of Lord Henry of Meldert: which Henry I take to be Henry of Opwinde, of whom we shall say a few words below. The third polyptych of the same bishopric, written in the year 1558, contains the following [C. De Ridder, Analectes pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique, year 1865, page 148]: Meldert, church. — Altar of Catherine or of the Mass of souls. — A. of Hermelindis in the chapel. — A. of Mary in the same place. — Altar in the court of Lord Henry of Meldert. — Matricularia.
[50] From these records it is evident that in the parish church of Meldert there had already been founded before the year 1281 in honor of St. Ermelindis an ecclesiastical benefice, which in the polyptychs of the years 1441 and 1558 was omitted for unknown reasons, but mentioned on the other hand in the second polyptych. Yet it seems not to have been extinguished, but rather united to the benefice of the same name which had been erected in the oratory; so that thereafter the same beneficiary seems to have held both benefices: of which we certainly find traces in the eighteenth century. However that may be, by the year 1627 the three benefices of St. Mary, St. Catherine, and St. Ermelindis, existing in the parish church, were so slender, through the misery of the times under which all Belgium and most of all the ecclesiastical institutions were suffering, that those endowed with them were not bound to reside at Meldert: wherefore Baron Jacques d'Oyenbrugge de Duras and many other inhabitants, having in agreement with them both the governess of Belgium, who acted in the stead of the duke of Brabant, that is, of Philip IV, King of Spain, and in that capacity was collator of the benefice of St. Ermelindis, and John Pinsonius, parish priest of Meldert and patron of the benefices of St. Mary and St. Catherine, left no stone unturned that those three benefices should coalesce into one, and that he who obtained it should be bound to fulfill certain ecclesiastical duties and to reside at Meldert. Accordingly the court of the archbishopric of Mechelen, all the forms of the court being diligently observed, on the 16th of December of the year 1627, at the instance of Jacques d'Oyenbrugge and the other inhabitants of Meldert, issued the following decree; part of which we produce from the record office of Meldert.
[51] [at the instance of Jacques d'Oyenbrugge they were united in the year 1627, the burden being imposed on the rector or beneficiary of residing and of rendering vicarial service to the parish priest,] Lord Jacques d'Oyenbrugge, baron of Meldert, and the inhabitants of the same place, against each and all etc. — On the 16th of December 1627. — In the case of the union and incorporation of the chaplaincies and benefices of the Virgin Mother of God and of St. Catherine founded in the parish church of Meldert, to the benefice of St. Ermelindis, formerly founded in the same church also by the dukes of Brabant, and likewise of the assignment of the same benefice of St. Ermelindis to the use of a priest and vicar, with the burden of residence in the same place, … extinguishing the aforesaid chaplaincies and benefices of Blessed Mary and St. Catherine, and their titles, and incorporating them in perpetuity, with their rights, goods, and revenues, in the aforesaid benefice of St. Ermelindis, we by the force and tenor of these presents charge the same benefice, thus enlarged, with the burden and obligation of residence in the place of Meldert, and also, by its future rectors and possessors (who must be fit and qualified priests, and approved as such by the aforesaid most illustrious lord archbishop), with the obligation of helping (when there shall be need) the pastor of the place, and of rendering him vicarial service in hearing confessions, administering the sacraments, and exercising other pastoral functions. The rector of the aforesaid benefice of St. Ermelindis shall moreover be held, for the fulfillment of its burdens and those of the other two incorporated benefices, to the celebration of eight Masses a week in the aforesaid church, for the morning Mass, at the hour most suitable to the convenience of the parishioners and inhabitants of the same place: and moreover, beyond the aforesaid eight Masses, the rector shall be held on the feast days of the Virgin Mother of God to one Mass in the same church, and on Sundays and feast days he shall be particularly obliged to celebrate in the same church; imposing perpetual silence on each and all those cited as regards the things written below, saving nevertheless the right of the present rectors of the aforesaid benefices of Blessed Mary and St. Catherine, until by cession, decease, or otherwise in any manner he shall have given up the same benefices. Thus pronouncing in these matters. It was written: J. Le Roy, official of Mechelen. Lower down it was written: We commission the pronouncement of the above sentence, to be made on the soil of Brabant, in the place called Passebrugge, to the R. D. assessor or to D. Tromperus, registrar of our court, and to their
each. It was signed: J. Le Roy, official of Mechelen.
[52] [from which ordinance, wisest though it was, arose perpetual quarrels, until the French at the end of the eighteenth century abolished the benefice and sold its goods.] But however wise this ordinance was, it nevertheless gave occasion for innumerable complaints, since, because of the common calamities of the country, the revenues both of the parish benefice and of the enlarged benefice of St. Ermelindis were so scanty that neither the parish priest nor the beneficiary of St. Ermelindis had a fitting sustenance. By these complaints were wearied now the archbishop of Mechelen, now the chapter of St. Bartholomew of Liège; the latter being accused because, although it held the better goods of the former cloister of Meldert, and above all the tithes, it provided too little for the needs of the parish. Between the parish priest and the rector of St. Ermelindis there were also perpetual suits, chiefly because the latter most absurdly contended that he owed vicarial service to the parish priest only in extreme necessity; and that nothing else was signified by the words: When there shall be need. In the year 1740 a new suit arose, which the mayor of Meldert with the aldermen settled, ordering the sacristan John Cans to supply to the rector the wine, the bread, and whatever is necessary for performing the sacrifice of the Mass in the oratory of St. Ermelindis. But shortly a new magistracy is created, which pronounces that nothing is to be given by the parish church for offering the sacrifice of the Mass in the chapel of St. Ermelindis. This sentence being delivered, the rector John Baptist Clement went to the supreme judge, namely the Council of Brabant. Both sides defend their cause. The parish priest moreover accuses the rector of St. Ermelindis of not coming at the appointed time to celebrate Mass, and of not even being at hand to hear confessions. After these things had been disputed, in accordance with the wishes of both parish priest and rector, on the 9th of March of the year 1754 the Council of Brabant gave judgment: that in future the Masses should be celebrated by the rector in the church, as is indicated in the decree of union of the year 1627: that on Sundays and feast days the rector must betake himself to the church, the bell having been rung, for the celebration of the morning Mass: that it was his duty to help the parish priest so far as there was need, and that for this reason he must seek approval from the archbishop of Mechelen for hearing confessions; and in turn that there must be supplied to the oratory of St. Ermelindis the things necessary for performing the divine office in it. At the end of the eighteenth century not dissimilar quarrels arose between the parish priest Jacques Colpaert and the rector of St. Ermelindis, William Van Muysen. These were settled in some fashion in the year 1790. But since at about the same time Archbishop Henry Cardinal de Franckenberg had commanded that throughout the whole archdiocese of Mechelen on Sundays and feast days at the morning Mass either an instruction or a catechesis should be given to the people, that same William, being incapable of this, with the archbishop's consent, in the year 1790 substituted for himself, for the performance of most of his duties, a vicar, to whom he was to pay two hundred and forty florins. At that time the revenues of the benefice of St. Ermelindis were 638 florins, 5 shillings and 5 pence: and the burdens 20 florins, shillings and pence 2. But soon the French invaded the country once and again, and they both abolished the benefice and sold its goods at auction. And from this very brief narrative of innumerable quarrels the reader will easily gather that those times no more than the present lacked their thorns.
§ IX. Indulgences formerly granted to increase pious affection toward St. Ermelindis. The confraternity erected in the year 1849.
In honor of St. Ermelindis Urban VIII granted a number of indulgences. It remains finally for us to list the indulgences and other spiritual goods by the granting of which the Roman pontiffs have endeavored both to increase and to dignify the cult of St. Ermelindis. Pope Urban VIII, then, who presided over the universal church from the year 1623 to 1644, at the request of Jacques d'Oyenbrugge granted to all the faithful of Christ who should visit her oratory on the 29th of October, the feast of St. Ermelindis, a plenary indulgence: likewise on the 24th of September, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, on the Tuesday of Pentecost, and on the 25th of July, the feast of St. James the Greater, apostle, an indulgence of seven years and seven quarantines Compaignon, Vie de S. Ermelinde, page 39.
[54] [There formerly existed there a confraternity, which in the year 1849 was restored, and with many indulgences] There was also formerly erected there a confraternity of St. Ermelindis; but this (since the accessory follows the principal) perished through the suppression of all the parishes which followed the concordat of the year 1801, and it was not restored until almost half a century later. This was done by the efforts of the venerable François Weckx; who, perceiving that the year 1849, in which the relics of St. Ermelindis were to be examined by his Eminence the archbishop of Mechelen, was very opportune for this, sent a letter to our Most Holy Lord Pope Pius IX, requesting the customary indulgences. The Roman pontiff assented to these prayers; and in his name on the 2nd of April of that year the pro-prefect of the Congregation of Indulgences wrote back in these words: Using the faculties granted to us by our Most Holy Lord, to all the confraters and consorors of the pious sodality under the title of St. Ermelindis, virgin, canonically erected or to be erected in the church named above, we grant and impart in perpetuity the indulgences as below, applicable also to the faithful departed: namely a plenary one on the first day of their reception into the same pious sodality, if, being truly penitent, having confessed and been refreshed by sacred communion, they shall have visited the said church, and there shall have prayed for some space of time according to the intention of his Holiness; and likewise a plenary one to be gained at the moment of death, provided that they be duly disposed, as above, or at least devoutly invoke the most holy name of Jesus with the heart, if they cannot with the mouth; and equally a plenary one, both on the feast day of St. Ermelindis, V., or on one of the two days immediately following, to begin from the first Vespers of the feast itself up to the sunset of the last of those two other days, to be gained once only in that interval; and also on the solemnity of All Saints or within its octave, to begin from the first Vespers of the solemnity itself up to the sunset of the last day of the said octave, to be acquired once only in such interval; and moreover on the Monday immediately following Pentecost Sunday, to begin from first Vespers up to the sunset of that day; and also on the first Sunday of Lent; and an indulgence of seven years and as many quarantines on four other feast days within the year, to be designated once only by the Ordinary, if, duly disposed as above, they shall have visited and prayed; and finally an indulgence of sixty days for any pious work whatever which they shall have performed with a heart at least contrite and devout. The present letter to be valid, observing however what is to be observed, according to the constitution of our Most Holy Lord Pope Clement VIII, given at Rome at St. Peter's on the 7th of December 1604, which begins: "Quæcumque a sede apostolica," notwithstanding any other things to the contrary. Given at Rome from the secretariat of the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences. D. A. Cardin. Bianchi, Pro-Prefect.
†
PLACE OF THE SEAL
James Gallo, secretary.
[55] [and also enlarged by the favor of a privileged altar, with the consent of the ordinary.] Moreover on the same 2nd of April, at the further request of the venerable Weckx, the Roman pontiff granted that each and all Masses which for any deceased confraters and consorors of the pious sodality under the title of St. Ermelindis, virgin, canonically erected or to be erected in the church of the place of Meldert, shall be celebrated at any altar of the same church in perpetuity in future times, should enjoy the same favor as if they had been celebrated at a privileged altar. According to these diplomas, therefore, his Eminence the archbishop of Mechelen erected the confraternity of St. Ermelindis on the 23rd of June of the year 1849; and on the 5th of the following July he permitted the indulgences granted by the Roman pontiff to be published, designating for the gaining of the partial indulgences: 1° the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord; 2° Palm Sunday; 3° the feast of Corpus Christi; and 4° the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
[56] The greatest solemnity in the inauguration of the confraternity. And lest the sodality should be shaken by the wind of opinions, or lest the members should be left to themselves, the venerable François Weckx composed for them very wise statutes; which statutes his Eminence the Cardinal approved on the 27th of October of the year 1849, granting on the same day, to increase the fervor of the members, that evening Lauds with exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament should be held in the church of Meldert on the first Monday of each month, provided that a sufficient number of adorers were present. Moreover, when on the 18th of December of the year 1849 the first members came together, the venerable parish priest called in Clement van Caille, a priest of the Society of Jesus, a most eloquent herald of the divine word, who for several days, twice, three, or four times from the sacred pulpit explained to the inhabitants of Meldert both the duties of a Christian man, and what and how great spiritual goods those who gave in their names to the new sodality would receive from God through the intercession of St. Ermelindis. Nor did the outcome disappoint the hope; for the people of Meldert, to a man (so far as was known), expiated their sins by sacred confession and refreshed the soul with the Eucharistic food. Add that in these days a good many of the faithful of Christ of both sexes were inscribed in the roll of the new sodality, among whom the most noble Lady Josephine Louise, Countess van der Noot de Duras, widow of the prince de Ligne, and her second husband, Count Charles Ferdinand Joseph d'Oultremont, and their children Count Adrien Eugène Paul d'Oultremont and Countess Émilie d'Oultremont; who all declared that they would be perpetual patrons of the sodality of St. Ermelindis; to whom afterwards others of the same house were added. Nor was the ardor less among the people of Meldert and the neighbors; so that in the year 1867 the roll of the sodality held 530 names.
THE MASS OF ST. ERMELINDIS, VIRGIN.
Ermelindis, V., at Meldert in Brabant. (S.)
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
1 — INTROIT.
Psalm Eructavit. ℣ Gloria. Prayer. O God, who blessed Hermelendis etc. Epistle. Confitebor.
2 — GRADUAL.
℣ Why, as a queen,
For her lowly virginity,
Is she exalted,
And beatified in heaven?
Alleluia. Alleluia.
O nun truly worthy,
O virgin, tiller of the desert,
By your prayer appease Christ,
That he may not will us to be dreadfully oppressed
By the demonic lot,
Whom once he took care to redeem,
But may grant us to enjoy his countenance.
Alleluia. Alleluia.
You who by the little flower of modesty
And by other virtues
Have adorned your vessel,
Here and elsewhere
Soften Christ for us
And give the goods of peace.
Alleluia.
3 — TRACT.
4 — SEQUENCE.
Gospel. The kingdom of heaven is like to ten virgins.
5 — OFFERTORY.
Secret. Hallow, we beseech thee, these gifts, most merciful Father, and thou who didst draw forth the virgin Hermelendis, whose feast we celebrate, unspotted by worldly contagions: draw us forth unharmed from all hurts, after the course of this life abundantly satisfying us with the enjoyment of thy countenance. Through the Lord.
6 — COMMUNION.
Postcommunion. May the mysteries received help us, O Lord, and thou who didst cause the virgin Hermelendis, in whose festival we rejoice, manfully to trample on the filth of the world, the flesh, and the demons, and who didst will her body to be buried by angelic ministry, us
by her merits and prayers protect, govern, wash clean of crimes, and grant to enjoy everlasting peace. Through the Lord.
Annotations* note in the ms.
THE OFFICE OF ST. ERMELINDIS, VIRGIN
At both Vespers, Matins, and Lauds.
Ermelindis, V., at Meldert in Brabant. (S.)
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
I ANTIPHONS AT I VESPERS.
I. Renowned are the deeds of holy Hermelendis, set forth in harmonious song,
To be celebrated at the yearly feast.
II. Therefore, kind Christ, protect the servants of the virgin wholly;
And grant that our service may become pleasing to her.
III. Let the church rejoice, and let the hosts of heaven be glad,
And let them celebrate the heralded palm of the kindly virgin.
IV. In mouth, in hand, in heart, the virgin, little smeared with filth,
For the glory of Christ scorned to commit a fault.
V. Hence in her accustomed rite, grave is the diligence of her life;
And to the tribe she is a pattern, the clearest norm of conduct.
2 CHAPTER.
who embraced virginity. Virginity is an honorable name, embracing which the virgin Hermelendis placed the joy of good works in her heart and conscience: and she herself, proved, had glory in herself alone, and not in another.
3 HYMN.
Let the joyful assembly exult;
Let it compose hymn-singing strains;
With homage let it praise
The wondrous acts of Hermelendis.
The brightness of whose youth
Shone like a star,
And the laurel of her chastity
Stayed green even until death.
She dwelt in desert places,
Avoiding the contagion of the world,
Nor was any known to be her equal
Among those who abstain.
Let the heavenly phalanx press close:
Here is heard a glorifying voice
That she who died in the places of the desert
Is not to be wept for or bewailed.
The matter becomes plain to mortals
Through the renowned obsequies
Performed by the dwellers in heaven:
The people raise the relics.
Soon marvels take place here:
For health is given to the languishing,
Abundance of salvation to the faithful,
To the detriment of the faithless.
Praise be to the Father with the Son,
Together with the Holy Spirit;
And may the prayer of the virgin
Help us fully to enjoy him. Amen.
℞ The virgin, glory of maidens, a star bright with observance,
Trampling the world at twice six years, by the perennial
Rule of tamed flesh seeks the steep things of life.
℣ The virgin without guile, most worthy of renowned praise.
By the rule of tamed flesh. Glory be to the Father. By the rule of tamed flesh.
℣ Pray for us, etc.
4 ANTIPHON AT THE MAGNIFICAT.
Magnificent virgin, simple, most cautious, chaste,
Pale and lean, devout, contemplative, sacred,
Then in continual jubilation of mind, now the asylum
Of perpetual peace she enjoys, in which rejoicing she is established.
Prayer.
O God, who didst render blessed Hermelendis sanctified by virginal chastity, by regular obedience, and by wonderful abstinence, and moreover by the hermit's life: and who didst lay her body in the ground, angels burying it, we ask thee by her merits and worthy prayer, do thou, kind and gentle, wash away our guilt and give everlasting joy. Through the Lord.
AT MATINS, INVITATORY.
Christ, the glory of the chaste and their protection,
Let us ever adore, and with pious mind let us rejoice.
5 ANTIPHONS AT THE I NOCTURN.
6 ANTIPHONS AT THE II NOCTURN.
I. It happened that two men wished to deceive the faithful
Handmaid of Christ, whose guardian, O Christ, thou wast.
II. The angel comes near: he warns; and the young maiden believes,
And a splendor shines forth, the chaste one makes the chaste one his friend.
III. Trusting, she comes to the desert with faith as guide. At last
This place, pleasing to her, is fitted for her, and there she stays.
℞. This tiller of the desert, as if the avenger of the wound inflicted,
Began steadfastly to want in the side of Christ.
℣. Herbs become her food and haircloth her clothing;
In the side of Christ etc.
℞. Bearing Christ in her mind, ever cleaving to Scripture,
She becomes an upright vessel of glory, free of all fault.
℣. She applies herself to eternal things, lying hidden in the caves of the woods;
She becomes an upright vessel etc.
℞. So she departs from this life, after much time
A hermit; the heavenly people attend her, by whom
She is buried. With voice, lyre, and lamp wondrous worship is done.
℣. The soul, setting itself free, is carried from the depths to those on high.
With voice. Glory be. With voice.
7. ANTIPHONS AT THE III NOCTURN.
I. The deeds are made known: to a certain just and surely comely man
It befell that he learned them, as he went through the said wood.
II. By night he sees the choir of heaven and a radiance; he hears their
Sweet melody; he carefully marks the place; he goes away also in the morning.
III. On the following night a certain man passed the night in the same place;
He, a worthy man, saw a worthy, memorable sign.
℞. The man with all his effort makes known what he learned by sight;
At the side of the tomb he founds a house: the wondrous matter overflows.
℣. The great name and omen of this matter is spread abroad.
At the side of the tomb etc.
℞. The people rush to the known miracles, offering pious vows,
True health is given here to diseases and to those bereft of sight.
℣. And to the lame, to each one, to the deaf, the mute, and the raving
True health etc.
℞. Soon, Duke Pepin coming, and bending the knee,
Giving kisses to the place, pious utterances of the voice are made.
The sacred limbs are honorably placed in a casket, with him as witness;
Who builds a great temple in praise of the venerable one,
℣. And, establishing a pious work and law, a heaven of either sex;
For the care of their food he gives many estates.
Who builds a temple. Glory be. Who builds a temple.
8 ANTIPHONS AT LAUDS.
I. Let us praise Christ, for whose sake the good virgin
Spurned this world, shining with a radiant crown.
II. Let us praise Christ, and magnify his praise;
Gifted by whom, this blessed one so shines forth.
III. Let the people take care for ever to praise the King on high,
Who took care gloriously to make her wonderful.
IV. Let Christ be praised, and glorified for ever,
Who so wonderfully adorned the life of his friend.
V. With high-sounding praises, by force of reason, is praised
The King whom the austere virgin served with pure mind.
Chapter.
I will praise thy name continually and will praise the Lord together in confession; and my prayer has been heard. Thanks be to God.
9 HYMN
[May Christ, who was patron to St. Ermelindis living and dead, for the sake of her prayers free men from sin;] Behold the dawn rises swiftly,
Forerunner of the light;
All created things admonish us
To sing to the Creator.
Give pure joy, O Christ,
Wipe away all vices,
Thou who givest to holy Hermelendis
Fourfold penitence.
She who flowered in chastity,
Obeying in obedience;
And who dwelt in the desert
In wonderful abstinence.
Buried by the heaven-born,
Enjoying the glory of heaven,
Divers signs grant
That she be praised by the earth-born.
Praise be to the threefold unity,
Honor, might, victory,
May all the dregs of sin fall away
By the grace of Hermelendis's prayers. Amen.
℣. ℞. Pray for us, blessed virgin Hermelendis etc.
ANTIPHON AT THE BENEDICTUS.
O blessed Father, O Christ, most loving brother,
O Holy Spirit, song, palinode, neume,
Are rightly given to thee, to thee they chant, thee they venerate,
Who givest to Hermelendis the pious rewards of her merited life.
Prayer.
Find us, we beseech thee, O Lord our God, constantly persevering in vigils and praises, that thou mayest not crush us with the sinners of the earth in the morning, but may the prayer of Hermelendis, whose life was pleasing to thee, render us readier for all things. Through the Lord.
10 ANTIPHONS AT THE II VESPERS.
ANTIPHON AT THE MAGNIFICAT.
O kind Son of the Word's bearing, spring flowing with a rich vein,
By the prayers of the virgin Hermelendis strip us of our faults,
And through her merits may we gain the heavenly life.
Alleluia. Prayer. O God, etc.
Appendix, or series of the toparchs of Meldert.
Ermelindis, V., at Meldert in Brabant. (S.)
BY THE R. D. B.
Whoever has considered the posthumous glory of St. Ermelindis, which up to this point I have tried to recount, will surely have understood that there has always existed a certain singular communion between the most blessed patroness and the toparchs of Meldert; so that these should protect her cult and relics, and she should surround them with her patronage. Wherefore it has seemed worth the effort to weave together some series of those same lords; which has the more importance in that at the same time the history of a most noble family is partly contained in it. At the end of the fourteenth century there already existed a certain noble house of Meldert, from which the lords of Meldert seem to have sprung. For in the year 1299, on the Saturday before the feast of St. Michael, John I, duke of Brabant, gave in fief to his beloved minister Arnold of Meldert the annual rent which he had at Raedshoven or Racourt, a place which lies near Landen, in the province of Liège. The same rent, and the advocacy of Raedshoven, worth XVIII shillings annually, was held by Iwan of Meldert in the year 1350, in which year the book of the feudatories of Duke John III was enlarged; so that that Iwan was the son of Arnold of Meldert, or certainly his heir. But at the beginning of the fifteenth century, as will appear a little below, Libert of Meldert was hereditary advocate of Raedshoven; so that a bond of blood existed between this Libert and Arnold of Meldert. In the same Book of Feudatories there occurs Lord John of Meldert, holding goods and a mansion at Steene, situated near Orsmaal, as allodial or his own, other goods at Bunsbeek, others between Orsmaal and Dormaal, others between Neerlanden and Dormaal, and likewise the villa and lordship of Hoelede; so that he was truly wealthy. There appears in the same place Henry of Meldert, knight, having XX pounds of land annually at Meldert and Meerhout, which were held after him by Arnold of Vivario, also called Vanden Wiere; from which Arnold Lord John had bought the goods between Orsmaal and Dormaal, and after whom he had also gained the villa and lordship of Hoelede. That same Henry of Meldert held a rent at Hildeberghe; which rent Iwan of Meldert obtained after him: so that Henry seems to have died without offspring [Galesloot, le Livre des feudataires de Jean III, pages 54, 87, 130, 158, 166, and 170]. In the same book a number of others are read to have held fiefs at Meldert; but there was no lord save the duke of Brabant. The successors of John III are certainly not to be listed, who granted the fiefs of Meldert and also the toparchy to noblemen at a set price, either for life or at pleasure. Yet we have only four agreements of this kind before our eyes. Of these the first was entered into by John d'Oyenbrugge, count of Duras, on the 18th of September of the year 1559; the second by Jacques d'Oyenbrugge on the 17th of July of the year 1630; and likewise the third on the 22nd of August of the year 1641; and indeed also the fourth by that same Jacques, who at length on the 18th of December of the year 1648, at the price of 10,200 pounds, was appointed perpetual toparch of Meldert. Not all, therefore, were lords of Meldert by the same right, but some as beneficiaries or by sufferance, others as emphyteutic tenants, others as feudatories, and the last at length as honorary lords. These things being premised, we begin the series, such as it is, from the end of the fourteenth century Cour feodale du Brabant, Register 269.
I. The first who occurs is HENRY OF OPWINDE or Overwinde, which is a parish of the province of Liège. He was lord of the half part of the fief of Budingen, a parish of the province of Brabant near Zoutleeuw. He laid aside the surname of Opwinde, so as then to be called Henry of Meldert [Cf. de Herckenrode, Collection de tombes etc. de la Hesbaie, page 29 and following]: but whether he was in fact toparch of Meldert, or rather his wife Margaret de Bremsons, who had received from her brother by hereditary right the feudal land in Meldert,
is for a while uncertain. On the one side he is called Henry of Meldert in public documents, and in the two polyptychs which we indicated above the castle is called the court of Lord Henry of Meldert; nor does any other Henry appear to whom this designation might refer: on the other side his son Libert is related to have received the lordship of Meldert by right of his mother [Kempeneers, de Oude vryheid van Montenaken, page 28 and following; de Herckenrode, Collection etc. page 29]. He died about the year 1400 (Archives of Liège) Lefort, Extraits, volume XV, page 237.
II. LIBERT, son of Henry and Margaret, toparch in Meldert and Budingen, took as wife Jutta Proest de Melin, lady in Vrolingen, a hamlet of the parish of Wellen, in the province of Limburg, and in Bombroeck, a hamlet of the parish of Kortessem, in the same province. He died about the year 1428 Chambre des comptes, register 555, page CCXXI.
III LIBERT, son of Libert and Jutta, lord in Meldert, Budingen, Vrolingen, and Bombroeck, was hereditary advocate Ibid. in the place cited of Raedshoven or Racourt. He died in the year 1483 without legitimate sons. His sepulchral inscription exists in the church of Meldert.
IV. ANTHONY OF MONTENAKEN, lord in Meldert, Budingen, Vrolingen, and Bombroeck, son of Godfrey, count of Montenaken and lord in Grasen and Wilre, who died in the year 1448 (and who was the son of William of Montenaken and Margaret of Meldert, Libert's sister), and of Mary de Reves; so that Anthony by right of his grandmother received the inheritance of his great-uncle Libert. Anthony was still living in the year 1491 or 1496, having taken as wife Cornelia Van Rommeswalle [Kempeneers, Vryheid van Montenaken, volume II, page 32; Franchise de Montenaken, page 41]. The history of the most celebrated fief of Montenaken has been written by the venerable Kempeneers. The feudal affairs of the parish of Grasen, in the province of Brabant, and of the parish of Wilre, in the province of Limburg, have been set forth by Wolters [Notice sur la commune de Rummen et les anciens fiefs de Grasen, Wilre, Bindervelt et Weyer, page 188 and following].
V. ISABELLA OF MONTENAKEN, sister of Anthony and wife of James de Jauche, became lady in Meldert, exchanging the advocacy of Raedshoven for the toparchy of Meldert Cf. Kempeneers, in the works cited, volume II, page 30. She died without offspring Ibid. page 32.
VI. JOHN OF MONTENAKEN, son of Anthony, received the lordship of Meldert from the testament of his aunt. He died in the year 1553 Ibid. page 30.
VII. MARY OF MONTENAKEN, John's sister, an exchange having been made, obtained the lordship of Meldert from her brother Ibid. page 31 and married Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge, toparch of Duras. The origins and fortunes of the fief of Oyenbrugge, which lies in the principality of Grimbergen, have been described by the distinguished Alphonse Wauters Histoire des environs de Bruxelles, volume II, page 253. The genealogical tree of the family of Oyenbrugge has been set forth by several writers [De Herckenrode, Collection des tombes etc. page 105 and following; Vie de la Comtesse Marie d'Oyenbrugge, dite de Duras, page 108 and following; de Vesiano, Suite du Supplement du Nobiliaire des Pays-Bas, volume III, page 151 and following]. The history of the lordship of Duras has been briefly given by Baron Léon de Herckenrode Vie de la Comtesse Marie etc. page 117, note 4.
VIII. JOHN D'OYENBRUGGHE DE DURAS, son of Guillaume and Mary, count of Duras, acquired for himself for a time, for ready money, on the 18th of September of the year 1559, from Philip II, King of Spain, as duke of Brabant, the toparchy of Meldert, which his ancestors had possessed by sufferance Archives du Royaume, Cour féodale du Brabant, register 269. He died in the year 1568 and was buried in the castle chapel of Duras, leaving as widow Catherine Van Guydehove, who died in the year 1584 and was buried in the same place.
IX. GUILLAUME D'OYENBRUGGE DE DURAS, son of Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge de Duras, toparch also in Budingen, in Bombroeck, Vrolingen, Grasen, and Wilre, and of Antoinette van der Gracht, received as a gift in the year 1567 from his paternal uncle John the toparchy of Meldert Ibid. register 295, page 71; register 547, page 86, and was the first to be called baron of Meldert. By his first wife, Anne de Corswarem, he begot Jacques. From the records of the archive of the town of Bouillon Revue archéologique belge, volume IV, page 43 it is established that he departed from the living in the year 1626. He rather often, at the peril of life and fortune, withdrew the relics of St. Ermelindis from the fury of the heretics.
X. JACQUES D'OYENBRUGGE DE DURAS, baron of Meldert, lord in Vrolingen and Bombroeck, took as wife Anne de Berlo, who departed this life in the year 1639; he himself died in the year 1651. He restored and adorned the oratory of St. Ermelindis. He lies buried with his wife beneath the huge mausoleum which is built in the middle of the parish church of Meldert.
XI. ANNE MARIE D'OYENBRUGGE DE DURAS, baroness of Meldert, saved from death in infancy by the intercession of St. Ermelindis, married Godfrey d'Oyenbrugge, toparch of Oyenbrugge, who is said to have descended from Henry II, lord of Oyenbrugge and of Coelhem (a hamlet of the parish of Puurs near Mechelen). This Henry is said to have begotten two sons who left offspring, the one Baldwin, the other William. Baldwin, who lived in the thirteenth century, was the great-great-great-grandfather of John d'Oyenbrugge, toparch of Meldert, and of his brother Guillaume d'Oyenbrugge, husband of Marie Marguerite of Montenaken. William transmitted to his descendants, among whom was Godfrey, the fief of Oyenbrugge de Vesiano, Suite du Suppl. volume III, pages 172 and 151. Godfrey died in the year 1647; his wife Anne Marie died in the year 1673.
XIII. ENGELBERT D'OYENBRUGGE, son of Godfrey and Anne Marie, baron of Meldert and lord in Billichout (Billichout is a hamlet of the parish of Cumptich), Zuerenberg, and Oude-Molen, died in the year 1681; his wife, Marie Ernestine de Berlo, in the year 1686.
XIII. ANNE AIMÉE JOSÈPHE D'OYENBRUGGE, daughter of Engelbert and Marie Ernestine, baroness of Meldert and lady in Billichout, married Ernest Balthazar d'Oyenbrugge, count of Duras, lord of Grasen, Wilre, Gorssum, Runckelen, and Schelfheide. The great-great-great-grandfather of Ernest, who by his marriage with Anne Aimée brought back the barony of Meldert to the house of Duras, was John d'Oyenbrugge, count of Duras, who first among his family secured the lordship of Meldert for the Oyenbrugges. Gorssum, of which Schelfheide is a part, and Runckelen are parishes of the province of Limburg. Anne Aimée died in the year 1692; her husband in the year 1710.
XIV. ANNE ANTOINETTE THÉRÈSE ERMELINDE D'OYENBRUGGE DE DURAS, daughter of Anne and Ernest, countess of Duras, baroness of Meldert and of Thyne, lady in Grasen, Wilre, Gorssum, Runckelen, etc., married Philippe François van der Noot, baron of Carloo. The fief of Carloo, made a barony in the year 1668, has been illustrated by the distinguished Alphonse Wauters Histoire des environs de Bruxelles, volume III, page 650. Thyne lies in Brabant Tarlier and Wouters, Geogr. et hist. du canton de Nivelles, page 1. Anne Antoinette died in the year 1717; her husband in the year 1759.
XV. JEAN JOSEPH LOUIS PHILIPPE VAN DER NOOT DE DURAS, son of Philippe François and Anne Antoinette, baron of Meldert, died unmarried in the year 1767.
XVI. JEAN JOSEPH PHILIPPE COUNT VAN DER NOOT, count of Duras, baron of Meldert and of Carloo, son of Philippe Joseph van der Noot, baron of Carloo and count of Duras, who died in the year 1748, and of Honorine Françoise Antoinette, baroness of Hamme and lady of Stalle, who died in the year 1793, received the inheritance of his paternal uncle, Jean Joseph Louis Philippe. He took as wife Florence Marie Josèphe Ghislaine de Ruysschen, countess of Elissem; who died in the year 1801, her husband in the year 1803.
XVII. JOSEPHINE LOUISE COUNTESS VAN DER NOOT, countess of Duras, born in the year 1785, died in the year 1863, bore to her first husband, Louis Lamoral, prince de Ligne, who died in the year 1813, Eugène Lamoral, prince de Ligne and d'Epinoy, born in the year 1804, president of the Belgian Senate; and to her second husband, Count Charles Ferdinand Joseph d'Oultremont and Wégimont, who died in the year 1852,
1° Count Octave Charles Louis d'Oultremont de Duras, born in the year 1815; and at the same birth
2° Countess Olympia, who died in the year 1827;
3° Countess Flora Paulina, born in the year 1818, who died at two years of age; and at the same birth
4° Countess Natalie Caroline Ferdinande d'Oultremont, widow of Charles Amédée Ghislain de la Motte-Ango, viscount of Flers;
5° Count Adrien Eugène Paul d'Oultremont de Duras, born on the 20th of April of the year 1828;
6° Countess Marie Émilie d'Oultremont, born in the year 1829, widow of Charles Louis Alexandre, marquis de Nedonchel.
XVIII. COUNT ADRIEN EUGÈNE PAUL D'OULTREMONT DE DURAS, named just above, heir of the lordship of Meldert, took as wife Baroness Valérie Françoise Louise Philippine de Copis, born in the year 1833; who bore him
1° Countess Bathilde Louise Caroline Marie Françoise d'Oultremont, born on the 5th of January of the year 1853;
2° Countess Caroline Marie Françoise Eugénie d'Oultremont, born on the 9th of November of the year 1853.