Wernher Boy

ON ST. WERNHER BOY SLAIN AT WESEL BY THE JEWS, DEPOSITED AT BACHARACH, ON THE RHINE IN THE DIOCESE OF TRIER, IN THE YEAR 1287

Wernher boy, slain at Wesel, deposited at Bacharach, on the Rhine in the diocese of Trier (St.)

BY D. P.

Immense in all ages has been the hatred of the Jews against Christ and Christians, who daily curse them, and atrociously persecute them, secretly carry off their boys and cruelly slaughter them; Many boys slain by the Jews, especially in those days, in which either they themselves keep their Pasch, or the Catholic Church is accustomed piously to venerate the passion and death of Christ the Savior. Thus Saint Simon the boy at Trent, and Saint Johannettus the boy in the Cologne diocese, impiously slain by the Jews, are set forth in this our work on March 24; likewise Saint William the boy, at Norwich in England; and Saint Richard, at Paris slain by the same Jews, are related on March 25: where also we treat of other boys slain by similar rage of the perfidious people. In the same manner slain by those most cruel ones Rudolph the boy, and Saint Wernher at Wesel in the diocese of Trier. is venerated on April 17; and Saint Wernher the boy, of whom we here treat, was slaughtered at Wesel, a town of the Trier diocese, situated on the left bank of the Rhine, between Bacharach (where the body of the slain was deposited) and the town of Saint Goar, in the old Itineraries written Vosavia, by the inhabitants called Wesel, by the other Germans Ober-Wesel, which sounds upper Wesel, so that from the other Wesel, in the Duchy of Cleves, situated on the right or German bank of the same Rhine, near the confluence of the river Lippe or Lupia, it may be distinguished.

[2] The Acts of the martyrdom, written not long after his death, are extant, but in contracted form, in the old Legend of the Saints, printed at Cologne and Louvain in the year 1483 and 1485. are given from MS. the old Acts of martyrdom The same afterwards by Laurentius Surius from a MS. codex were described, and published with changed wording on this April 19. We give them whole in the primitive style, from an ancient codex written on parchment, once of the College of Paderborn of the Society of Jesus, now by exchange of other books made of our Professed House of Antwerp, and in it of our Museum, in which we prepare the lives of Saints for the press. and an Epitome: Inserted also are found, and almost word for word, in the Lessons of the new History or Office: from which we shall give a supplement to the old life in the Notes.

[3] then from the Process for canonization Moreover nothing has helped us more to illustrate the glory of the holy boy, than the distinguished parchment Codex of our Trier College, most faithfully transcribed under the faith of seven Notaries in the year 1429, by the effort of Winand Pastor of Bacharach, most zealously working to promote the cult of Blessed Wernher and to obtain his solemn canonization: the fulfilling of whose vow the more recent Legend would persuade, written at Besançon after the year 1548 (where it is said that Wernher, or as it is there written Vernerius, was enrolled by Martin V Supreme Pontiff in the catalogue of the Blessed) if even the least foundation of such assertion appeared in any older author. But then that ought to have been done in the last year of Martin, which was after the death of the Saint, not the 120th year, as that Legend says, but the 144th. We shall give from it the history of the finger carried to Besançon, on whose occasion he was there taken as Patron of the Vinedressers, is given, before the last finding a Sodality under his name being erected: and wishing to gratify this, Fr. Eusebius the Capuchin rendered the aforesaid Legend into French, and published it in the year 1621. But before we treat of the carrying away of the relics to foreign parts, we shall bring to light many illustrious documents, received from the said Trier codex: but we shall conclude the whole matter with the narration of the finding again of the body in the year 1621, while the Hero of immortal memory among the Belgians, Ambrosius Spinola, was carrying around the arms of the Catholic King through the Palatinate of the Rhine. The title of the Ms. made the author of that narration Fr. Thomas Sailly of the Society of Jesus, the Superior of ours then ministering in the camps. Certainly by him and his companion, a synopsis of the older, the matter being done so was also the subscribed account.

[4] Further, the Trier Codex, of which I have spoken, is nothing other than a Process, juridically formed, by the authority of the Apostolic Legate, Jordan Cardinal Orsini; in the year 1428, of the aforesaid Pope Martin in the 11th year; in which verbatim are inserted all the monuments of Saint Wernher, down to that year from the time of his very passion, consigned by public or private letters; from which in this place after the History of his passion and its Epitome now indicated, we shall give first a Synopsis of ninety miracles, performed within the first two months from the martyrdom: and a history of the more recent miracles, then the Narration of the body detected in the year 1426, and placed in a new casket: which most solemn action was followed by several evident miracles, attested by eleven public Instruments: which instruments we give almost whole, and we call the History of more recent miracles. And at last gathering together the beginning and end of the Process, interrupted by the production both of those things which I have already mentioned, and of other documents which are omitted for brevity's sake and are only indicated in the Notes; we come to the examination of two hundred and eleven Witnesses, with the depositions of 211 witnesses which by most prolix development fills nearly half of the codex. We however, as we have done in Saint Francis of Paola and others, have arranged their depositions in such order, that nothing may be hidden relating to the history, and tedium be avoided, which would come to the reader from a rude and undigested mass; nor however should anything of necessary authority be lacking, since all things are set forth in the very words of the Witnesses, with the name, condition, age and reason of knowledge of each added. Testimonies of the Annals about his passion and miracles,

[5] These things being so set forth, what is the point of seeking the testimony of the matter from the writers of Annals? We shall however give from the Ms. acts of Bohemund Archbishop of Trier an illustrious compendium of that Passion: about which also treat Henry Stero, an Altaich monk in Bavaria, in his Annals edited by Marquard Freher in vol. 1 of German writers, then living when the matter was done; and Siffrid Presbyter, contemporary of Stero, bk. 2 of his Epitome among the writers edited by John Pistorius; and Trithemius in the Hirsau Chronicle. Most accurate among them is Siffrid in the year 1287, In this year, he says, the happy youth Wernher was tortured by the Jews, and slain on Good Friday, on the shore of the river Rhine, in the city of Wesel, and buried in the town of Bacharach: whose sanctity miracles there attest. Trithemius in the same year, in the fifth year of Abbot Craffto, The Jews secretly seizing a certain Christian boy, originating from the village of Womraid, carry him with themselves to the town of Wesel on the Rhine, and piercing him with needles and knives for the receiving of his blood, on the 13th day before the Kalends of May, after long martyrdom cruelly slay him. He erred however in that he believed him to have been secretly seized and brought to Wesel, who of his own accord came thither and had hired out his work to the Jews for wages: the rest more truly, when he says: whose little body buried in the town of Bacharach up to the present day, that is, to the year about 1500, is shown in a certain chapel incorrupt, and is venerated by the inhabitants of the place as a Martyr, and is said to have shone with many signs. Stero expressed the same fame of miracles for his time in almost similar words, but erred when he ascribed Pacherat to the diocese of Würzburg; and more so when he marked the year 1288.

[6] slain in the year 1287, For the year of the martyrdom most certain, and not to be called into doubt, is 1287, in which Easter was celebrated on the 6th day of April: and consequently (which is much to be noted) the feast of the Ascension fell on May 15, and the feast of Pentecost on May 25 of the same: which days and very many others, with their Sundays and Ferias, are most accurately marked in the Synopsis of the miracles, which were soon after his death performed, beginning from the Vigil of the Apostles Philip and James that is from the last day of April, when we believe the body with solemn pomp near Bacharach in the church of Saint Cunibert was deposited. But to one reading the History of the Passion it appears, that between the day of the slaying and the day of the aforesaid deposition not many days flowed; so that we cannot doubt, that what is said at the end of the same History, April 19; and (as all other writers, both coeval and later, whether in their Annals or in the Fasti of the Saints have noted) Saint Wernher suffered on the 13th day before the Kalends of May. But the difficulty is how this consists with what is said in the same Acts, that the same Saint Wernher, when in the Supper of the Lord he had received the body of Christ, was captured by the Jews; and that thence deduced as consequent, after 140 years, Winand Pastor of Bacharach inserted into the new history or Office composed by him, that Werner died on the very day of Christ's death or burial. Miraeus, otherwise an accurate writer, perceiving no difficulty here, wrote in the Belgian and Burgundian Fasti, that the Jews in the year 1287 on Good Friday, which was then April 19, at Upper Wesel tore with pincers and knife the youth Werner. But the difficulty is in this, that in the said year Easter had been celebrated by Christians on the 6th day of April, and thus the Supper of the Lord on the 3rd of the same month. [since he had been in the hands of the Jews almost from the beginning of the month,]

[7] I observe therefore that the Jewish Pasch, which in the said year 1286 had been celebrated on March 25, the 3rd Feria, according to the resolution of the Rabbis of Amsterdam consulted on this matter, had been past when into their bloody hands came innocent Wernher; and so they had no cause why they should not defer the intended slaying to some other time convenient to themselves. But that they deferred it at least for fourteen days, the Scultetus advised by the report of a maidservant, and approaching the house in which Wernher was detained, makes it credible to me: who although soothed by money he left the youth in the hands of his tormentors, vainly imploring that at his command he be released: yet I do not believe he would have done this, if supervening upon the cruel butchery he had caught the Jews in so monstrous a crime, from whom he could have extorted whatever sum of money he wished, on account of the manifestly designed though not consummated crime; and could have bound Werner himself by the fear of a graver evil to be silent about the injury inflicted on him. Nor would this be a great error, if the beginning and end of the passion they have joined who knew the series of the deed, not from the confession itself of the Jews, but from scarcely distinguished indications: but this I think to have been the series of it. First, they tried to extort the same from Wernher returning from having received Communion (which whether he did on the very day of the Supper of the Lord or on another within the Paschal time, I think from a relation so little accurate cannot be sufficiently established) by hanging him by the head for some while: but when this did not succeed, the youth was kept for other counsels to be taken afterwards: which when they had come to the knowledge of a Christian maidservant, justly fearing lest worse things would follow the first, she went to the Scultetus and informed him how in the household a certain Christian had been kept and was even now being held, probably to be slain: awaiting the safety of carrying out the crime. but the Jews have forestalled the entry of the Scultetus to themselves, by lying about some other cause of detention, and so bringing it about that he himself, not fair enough, heard the defense of the foreign and poor youth, refuting the pretended reasons; and to his adversaries, excusing the danger of tumults if he were publicly taken out by the Scultetus, and promising to take him out secretly, gave consent, no further solicitous. But then the Jews waited some days, if perchance meanwhile he should be sought by relatives or acquaintances: and when they saw nothing moved by anyone, and believed it safe to dare anything, they met again to torture him on April 17, and on that and the following sixth feria held him in torments, under which at last he breathed out his blessed spirit on the 19th. And then indeed they did nothing about the cadaver, lest they should violate their own sacrosanct Sabbath, but on the following Sunday carried it out and hid it among brambles; where indicated to the neighbors by prodigious lights of several nights, and at Bacharach exposed in the prefect's hall, until it was deposited in the chapel of Saint Cunibert: for all which those ten days suffice, which remained until the end of the month, whence is taken the beginning of the miracles to be narrated.

[8] And let these things be said sufficiently about the year and day of the martyrdom: as for the aforementioned Process, from which we digressed, the whole of it looks chiefly to this, The Image painted as of a Saint among the Saints. that it may be most evidently proved that the cult of Saint Wernher, as of a certain and undoubted Martyr, was perpetual and most celebrated: and therefore among other arguments of such cult, it is appended by the Notaries concluding the Process, that his image is seen painted in the churches with palm, crown, and diadem, as symbols of sanctity, virginity and martyrdom, and indeed among other Saints. Therefore also on the front of the Trier Codex is seen a not inelegant painting, where between Saints Andrew the Apostle and Cunibert the Archbishop Saint Wernher stands in the middle, in a red penula, bound with a precious girdle, crowned with a wreath set with gems, and his head surrounded with a circle common to all Saints; in his right hand bearing a palm and a little knife, the instrument of his slaying; with his left leaning upon a wooden trough, of oval figure, as the instrument of seeking his livelihood (for he is related to have been led under the pretext of removing earth to the Jewish underground chamber), and on the same he places a pruning-iron, fixed on a longer handle, which is seen leaning against the said little trough; such as also brought into his tomb, was afterwards found with the body itself. Likewise in the middle of the codex, where the Office of the Mass composed for Saint Wernher is set forth with musical notation, with the Introit of one Martyr in Paschal time, "Thou hast protected me, O God," on the head of the palmar letter P, from which that Mass begins, he himself in the same scheme sits, resting his right with the little knife and palm upon his knee, holding with his left that pruning-knife of his, with the iron erected upward, broad enough and triangular; and the little trough lies on the right side, upon a flowery meadow, surrounded by rough rocks, as if the painter had wished to express some bank of the Rhine.

HISTORY OF THE PASSION

From the Ms. of the Antwerp Society of Jesus.

Wernher boy, slain at Wesel, deposited at Bacharach, on the Rhine in the diocese of Trier (St.)

BHL Number: 8860

FROM MSS. PROLOGUE I.

[1] He is called Wernherus, according to what sounds in Teutonic a, The etymology and mystical reason of the name: Driver-away or b Forewarned, because he drove three enemies from himself, and by his life teaches them to be driven away, namely the vanity of the world, the envy of the devil, and the desires of the flesh. First he drove from himself the vanity of the world, by virtuous simplicity, and by the operation of his hands; second the suggestions of the devil, by innocence of life, third the desires of the flesh, by virginal purity: or because he drove from himself infidelity, by integrity of faith and true confession of the Christian religion; the ambitious vanity of this world, by contempt of self and bitter passion; carnal delights, by the integrity of virginal continence.

[2] A triple prerogative, And on account of these three he merited a triple prerogative, namely of Martyrs, Virgins, and Confessors. The first he merited by the most bitter palm of martyrdom, Of Martyrdom, not indeed suddenly like many Martyrs, because for three days the pious and Catholic boy continued his martyrdom, a martyrdom indeed new, stupendous, and singular. For first that illustrious Martyr suffered in the place of Christ: because while the Jews could not have the true body of Christ itself, they burst out against the mystical body itself. Secondly in him Christ suffered: for the Jews seeing that they could not extort the true body of Christ from him, yet afflicted that venerable Sacrament, to which they intended to inflict injury, with the insults of tortures in that boy. Thirdly in Christ he suffered, because through that venerable Sacrament was that blessed boy incorporated into Christ, abiding in Christ, and Christ with him. Fourthly the Martyr of Christ suffered with Christ, because at the same time, and on the same day, in which that mystery is observed by the Church c; or because really by his passion the servant followed his Lord. Fifthly for Christ, because since the perfidious cannot persecute Christ reigning in the heavens, they persecute for him the Christian his worshipper. Sixthly for Christ, because as Christ suffered, that a Christian might be made and saved, so the Christian suffers for Christ, that the Christian faith may be exalted, and God glorified. Blessed therefore is he who suffers persecution for Christ. You have the cause of the passion. Let even now the unwise and foolish tongue be silent, to which the works of God have no savor, deprived of the most sweet savor of wisdom, of virginity, and bereft of the most serene light of faith. But the second he merited by virginal purity. The third prerogative he merited by the true confession of the faith and of the Christian religion, both because he bowed down to the Judge coming with a voice of exultation, as if he said; of confession. Love justice, you that judge the earth. Wisdom 1, 1 Which when the impious and iniquitous Judge dissembled, he declared both to the Judge and to the Jews the mercy of God, that he might soften them, that they might be converted, saying: If you will not help me, may the merciful God and his beloved Mother help me. In which however he especially struck the perfidy of the Jews, while he made known to them the glorious Virgin Mother of God beloved, and this wonderfully with a voice of exultation. Who is of so hard heart, who hears these things, and perceives them in his heart, is not pricked in heart, does not burn in spirit with compunction, nor compassionates so innocent and pious a boy? His body indeed was being most bitterly tormented, and his spirit exulted in the Lord. This is the true patience of the Saints, to rejoice in tribulation; to be kind to their persecutors, and to pray for them, after the example of the Lord, who said: Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.

ANNOTATIONS.

PROLOGUE II.

[3] Treating of the natal day of Wernher the holy boy, who suffered in the place of Christ, The Acts of SS are usefully recalled: dearest ones, although the blessed life of the Saints remains flowery with an unfading crown eternally with God omnipotent, and the book of blessed life retains their names, inscribed, most pleasantly excluded from any oblivion, yet we consider nothing to oppose the Christian religion, if we revolve their merits more frequently in mind, and commemorate their deeds for us, and make known by writings to posterity, by whose help and prayers we hope to be enrolled in heavenly places. For in his Saints glorious God Jesus Christ, and in his majesty wonderful (whose ineffable height of providence, enclosed by no limits, not comprehended by any bounds: who by the censure of right judgment disposes heavenly and earthly things equally) even if he magnifies all his ministers, adorns them with highest honors, and makes them most blessed possessors of heavenly beatitude; yet those, that he may render worthy things to the worthy, he raises with more powerful and higher marks of dignities, and follows with more ample retribution of rewards, whom he knows to be more worthy, and whom the greater excellence of merits commends. Thence for our salvation it arises, that the very things about the life and natal day of the most blessed boy Wernher, which we have learned, read through, and diligently handled by the most certain relation of the elders, and by his Legend, and especially of this Martyr, and also Office, as if tripartite, composed with words and most sweet melody redolent in past time, we ought not slothfully to pass over. For it is just and fitting, to commend with pious remembrances of Christian believers him, in whom Christ, and with whom Christ, and for whom Christ suffered; and by whose patience we are exemplarily instructed for eternal life.

NARRATION.

[4] Chosen therefore by Christ Wernher Martyr and Virgin, about fourteen years old, from the village of a Wammenrait, within a day's journey from b Bacharach, where he rests, he was a native, of simple rustic stock, but most noble in the cult of Christ, by religion a Christian, and faithful to Christ; Saint Wernher a rustic boy, a simple, humble, pious and timorous boy, and adorned with virginal purity, and nourishing himself by rustic labors: who as far as his strength permitted, sought his bread in labor and sweat, from this and as much as he could to the poor piously gave out. And so this boy is read to be happy, as c it is set forth, to have been simple and timorous, and to have had a death consonant with these for him; fleeing his stepfather but both persecuting his stepfather. Whence the pious boy, declining the persecution of his stepfather, and wandering on dry land, is said to have labored strongly by hunger and thirst, and after receiving charitable bread from e shepherds, elicits a fountain with his staff: also strongly thirsting, by the fixing of his staff in the ground, for the quenching of thirst, to have ministered the benefit of a most plentiful fountain in the name of Christ, both to himself and to those so ardently thirsting.

[5] After this coming to the imperial town of Trier's Wesel, At Wesel he hires himself out to the Jews, he sought in it the labor which he was seeking, he found. Him therefore the perfidious Jews, dwelling in the same town, craftily lead to labor; to which he renders himself ready: and so for carrying earth the boy they led into a deep dungeon. But the Paschal solemnity being at hand, his hostess, with whom he was lodging, said to the boy: Certainly, Wernher, beware of the perfidious Jews: because the day of the Passion is at hand. Without doubt they will eat you. The boy answered in the dove-like simplicity of perfection a little word, and expressive of true hope in Christ; This, he said, I commit to God. Therefore when the most sacred day of the Lord's Supper came, the boy truly Catholic and devoted to Christ, sacramental Confession having first been made, was most devoutly communicated by his Priest with the Body of Christ. And on the same day by the perfidious Jews craftily he was lured f into their house to do some work. And thus on the day of the Passion, on which every Christian, compassionating the bitter death of Christ, humbles himself; this boy the perfidious Jews sought for themselves as fit for their crime. [tortured in vain that he might restore through the mouth the Eucharist received that day,] Whence without delay they show their fury. For first taking hold of the boy, they blocked his voice, by a leaden ball pressed into his mouth, lest he should cry out. Then they bound or suspended him to a wooden g statue, prepared for this, by the feet upward and head downward, that they might have the true body of Christ, which the blessed boy had received on the same day.

[6] But their effort being frustrated, they gave themselves entirely to martyring the mystical body itself, and to taking away his life and blood; and thus with scourges they inflicted various and deep wounds on his body. Taking a knife also, he is emptied of blood: which up to this day is kept with him, they cut his veins through every part of the body; and also with pincers, for a most bitter pain also, they pressed out the blood from the veins in the feet, hands, neck and head, so that there appeared no soundness in him. Thus the perfidious Jews kept that holy boy hanging for three days on that wooden statue until h he ceased to bleed, often turning the body, now the head upward, now downward.

[7] In this house the Jews had a Christian maidservant, who secretly saw this martyrdom; who touched with inward grief of heart, summoned the Judge, i the Scultetus of the people of Wesel at that time, and led him to the place of the contest, He invokes God and the Mother of God: not without great stupefaction of the Jews. They however with gifts and a salary, very much softened the Judge, that he might turn aside his sense, and decline his eyes from seeing heaven, nor remember just judgments. And when the boy had beheld the Judge, with a voice of exultation he bowed down for his temporal deliverance. But the Judge, having taken the reward of iniquity from the Jews, denied help to the boy placed in torments. Then that blessed boy answered him denying: If you will not help me, may the merciful God, and his beloved Mother, help me.

[8] the body, which could not be carried farther away, And so with the holy boy abandoned by the Scultetus, and slain by the Jews, soon when the day had departed, and blind night had brought itself on, they took the body of the holy Martyr, reddened with his blood: and ascending the walls secretly, that the deed might be revealed to no one, they hastened into the water, and entered the prepared ships, to go to Mainz. But God, to whom all things are open, destroyed the counsel of their craftiness, since they themselves with all their strength, in this length of night, could not convey this treasure beyond one k mile. When the sun rose their false heart greatly trembled, and great care surrounded them all, how they should hide that illustrious Martyr. For they could find no art, it is cast among brambles: how to submerge that body in the waters: but in a valley near Bacharach a little small crypt appeared, hedged with thorns and brambles, where now the cloister of Saint Wilhelm l Order, called Wyndesbach, is situated; there they cast the body of the holy Martyr, and soon departed from there.

[9] illumined by heavenly light, But the Son of God would not long have this hidden, immediately showing his miracles. For to all the watchmen round about the camps, a brightness of lights shone at the time of the nights; which they, not without the stupefaction of admiration, declared. Hence the body soon found, and still reddened with its own blood, and the bread of heaven giving forth odor: it is found, is carried thence, by the custom m of the slain, to the judicial hall of the town of Bacharach: and the order of the truth of the thing being discovered, and all marveling at the odor of wonderful sweetness exhaling from his body, and at the brightness which by night declared his blessedness, with most devout affection and worthy, it was carried to the chapel of Saint Cunibert n, situated on the hill of the mountain near the parish, it is buried honorably, as a Martyr's. and there he was buried in the earth, wrapped in his own blood, having on his head a golden wreath or fillet, as a sign of his virginity, beneath a silken cushion filled with violets; and on his head a veil of silk doubled, in sign of his innocence and sanctity; and also beneath him the pruning-knife, the instrument of his former labor.

[10] He was also, in the manner of the Saints, above ground for the palm, in a most solid oak tomb, with a very small cedar box, venerably enclosed, and bolted with very strong bolts. From then when he is deposited in this place with glorious ceremonies, and immediately there flow different multitudes of peoples of both sexes, The manner of the slaying is narrated by an eyewitness, for the stupendous spectacle of so new a matter. For whose sake also the maidservant of the Jews, a woman of the Christian religion, who had seen the things which are written about this holy boy, and with compassion heard; opens the manner in order, and the series of the deed, according to the sentence of truth, Nothing hidden that shall not be revealed, nor covered that shall not be known. Luke 12, 2 And she said that the boy had hung three days, and with a ball of lead thrown into his mouth had been deprived of the sound of crying out, hung on a rack, in the manner we have said, scourged, cut, with his blood gathered in a certain urn, with the highest patience, and the blessing of God, had returned his spirit to God: that she herself also at the beginning of the torments had run to the Scultetus of the town, and had intimated to him that spectacle so miserable, and had led him to the presence of so lamentable a vision.

[11] These things having been done, soon o great and stupendous miracles happen; the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, miracles follow. the mute speak, the withered, paralytic, one-eyed, and any deficient and unwell are cured. What more? The dead rise again, and up to the present the clemency of God works manifold miracles for Christians through his Martyr. And the holy boy Wernher suffered in the year of the Lord 1287, on the 13th day before the Kalends of May. p

ANNOTATIONS.

Slavs, and the other nations of diverse languages, remotely and distantly placed, although foreigners, leads to the services of so serene a Martyr. Without delay: in the proper endowment of the Pastoral Church of Bacharach, on the little hill of the chapel of Saint Cunibert, all things and each necessity being fitted out, with due foundations upon solid ground there is begun, after the manner of three round solia, an ingenious and very costly and most beautiful Basilica; not without the most just providence of God, a basilica begun to be constructed. up to our present time, not yet finished; but as if to the vault in two choirs most subtly erected; where that holy body, as if incorrupt, visibly rests; as may well fit, "Thou hast turned my mourning into joy for me, thou hast cut my sackcloth, and hast compassed me with gladness; because my flesh resting in hope, my portion is in the land of the living." Ps. 29, 12 The causes unknown to us, why so wonderful a work of our Martyr's church up to us has not been finished in work, the infallible depth of riches of the wisdom of God (which foreknew from eternity all and each of the causes of things) could not be ignorant of. But the cause can also be known to us: it is interrupted, because there was a certain Archbishop, to whom at that time that territory was subject by way of pledge: who when he saw the flowing together of men, like torrents of waters, gathering with gifts; miserably seduced by the eye of cupidity, the treasure brought into Christ's treasury, in the manner of Nebuchadnezzar despoiling the uncompleted temple, this treasure of Christ by force he received, and carried away into the treasures of his god. Hence ample alms and an open hand could be closed up, lest flowing equally with him who retained it, it be frustrated of due end. Could also the daily diminution of miracles, and the indignation of the people against the Archbishop have furnished no small fuel. Yet another more probable cause seems to be. Perhaps God, not at that time, but in our time decreed that the work begun should be completed, that through new miracles surpassing the old, he might show his Martyr more radiant; that later it might be more augustly dedicated, and that not for that one alone, but for himself Triune and One, his most sweet Mother, both Johns, and all the elect, and for him, he willed and wills that noble Basilica to be completed and consecrated; not by any whomsoever, but, in the order of the Temple of Solomon, by only those to whom the Omnipotent himself by mellifluous grace has granted this: whence around the epitaph and mausoleum of the holy Martyr it is thus written, A Trefoil, bearing the species of the image of the nurturing Trinity This temple, is dedicated to the Lord Three and One, as is read around the epitaph. And to thee Christ-bearer, to Christ, to either John, With the citizens above, that panton (that is, from all evils) he may spare us may he wish. This shall do the Prince, (namely Christ) to whom a sword double-edged is borne, that is, carried, And of whom doubt thou not at all but that reigns without end in deed. May he grant it to us, rescued from the general mass of damnation, by the fruit of the most blessed Virgin Mary ever virgin, eternally blessed above all. Amen. Thus far the sixth Lesson of the new office; at whose end we have interpolated the verses inserted about the dedication of the trefoil, or three-choired temple (the Greeks would say trikogchion); the verses, I say, badly turned, that they might more easily be understood, with proper words added. The Besançon Legend, treating of the begun building of the same temple, adds these words: whose altar, which is nearest to the shrine of the Martyr, Bishop Hermann, who then was bestowing the Suffrage of the Pontificate, substituted to the Archbishop of Trier by Apostolic authority, consecrated according to the custom of the Church, and dedicated it to the honor of the first Patrons.

EPITOME.

From the Ms. Acts of Bohemund Archbishop of Trier.

[11] a In the year of the Lord 1287, while Lord b Bohemund was still in the Roman Curia, a certain Christian and beggar boy, Of Blessed Wernher slain by the Jews. named Wernher, while at Wesel, a village of the Trier diocese, he was carrying out earth in a basket from the cellar of a certain Jew; at a certain hour, while a convenient opportunity presented itself, having entered into council, the perfidious Jews, enemies of the Christian name, rushed upon him. Who afflicting the innocent boy with various blows, were tearing him limb from limb, and at length slew him with a cruel death, and hid the body lifeless and bloodless farther from the village in thickets and brambles. the body is found: But God preserving the body of his Martyr intact from beasts and birds; it was found by a certain peasant, who was plowing the earth near there.

[12] And neighbors being summoned to this spectacle, a murmur arose among the people, that the impious Jews had perpetrated this crime. a slaughter of them occurs: As also a certain Christian maidservant serving the Jews testified; who asserted that she had seen it through a crack in the wall. For which cause the men of that land, placed far or near, filled with fury, miserably burned against the wretched Jews, strangling some, burning others with their wives and little ones, submerging others, and slaying very many with the sword. he is honored with a chapel and miracles. Only those who could take refuge in the camps and fortifications of Nobles were safe from this pestilence. c And the venerable body of the Martyr was translated to Bacharach, and immediately there in honor of God and his Martyr a chapel is built with costly work: whose precious death in his sight the Lord is piously believed to have declared by many miracles. To whose tomb, in hope of pardon, crowds of pilgrims from near and distant regions run in throngs. Verses on his death.

In the year one thousand, twice hundred, and eighty and seven, with Christ born to us of the Virgin, the boy Wernher was slain; afterwards seen. d

ANNOTATIONS.

MIRACLES XC.

performed within two months from his death. From a Tablet triple-fold hung at the tomb.

Wernher boy, slain at Wesel, deposited at Bacharach, on the Rhine in the diocese of Trier (St.)

BHL Number: 8862

[13] a In the year of the Lord 1287, In the year 1287 are healed on April 30, on the Vigil of the Apostles Philip and James, namely on the day of b Blessed Quirinus Martyr these miracles were done at Bacharach, through the mercy of God, and through the merits of his Mother the Virgin Mary, and of all c his Saints. On the very vigil a blind boy, a blind boy, Eberhard of Diepach, in one eye received his sight. Likewise on the same day a certain merchant of good life and good fame, contracted. contracted in the arm, was cured. On the morrow of the Apostles Philip and James, which is d the sixth feria, May 2 three contracted. a scholar of Wesel, contracted in the arm and foot, was restored to health. Likewise on the same day, a boy of Tittelbach, contracted in the arm, was restored to health. On that day, a certain woman of Wesel, called Heydentrut, who for six years in the bed of sickness lay contracted, was cured. On Saturday, namely on the Finding of the Holy Cross, May 3 blind, a certain woman of Erbach, for many years blind, received her sight. On that day, Henry of Welmmeche contracted in the legs, was cured. 4 contracted. On the same day, Stacia, widow of Lord Otto of Schonenberg, contracted in the legs, was healed. On that day a certain girl of Liebenshuysen, contracted in the legs, was healed. On that day, a girl of Wesel, contracted in the legs; May 4 blind, was cured. On the following Sunday, on which is sung e Cantate Domino, a girl of lower Heymbach, blind, was illumined. On the same day, someone from Langhenscheit, 3 contracted. contracted in the legs, was cured. On that day, someone from Wesel, contracted in the legs, was healed. On the same day, a certain boy from Wilmechen, contracted in the legs, was healed.

[14] May 5 7 contracted, On the following second feria, Henry of Germersheim; contracted in the legs, was healed. On that day, Theodric of Palentina, contracted in the legs, was healed. On that day Henry of Comeda, contracted in the legs, was cured. On that day, Elizabeth of Rudensheim, contracted in the arm, was healed. On the same day, a woman certain of Buly, contracted in the arm, was healed. On that day, Gertrude of Bodenbach, contracted in the arm, was healed. May 6 contracted, On the same day, John of Leythert, contracted in the legs, was healed. On the following third feria, which is the feast of John before the Latin Gate, Ysendrut of Seitehelt, contracted in the arm, a blind woman, was healed. On that day, Elizabeth of Mainz, blind, was illumined. On the same day, Rudewinus of Werlen, submerged. submerged in the Rhine, and given up for his life, from the deep escaped alive. On the following fourth feria, May 7 3 contracted. Clementia of f Saint Goar, contracted in the legs, was cured. On that day, Theodric of Bickenbach, contracted in the legs, was cured. On the same day, Methildis of Pingwea, contracted in the legs, was healed. N… was contracted in the legs and in the arms, May 8 contracted. who for many days lying in the bed of sickness, was cured. On the fifth feria before Servatius, May 9 a possessed woman contracted, Ermetrudis of Navray, contracted in the legs, was healed. On that day, Aleydis of Kesteln, possessed by demons, namely Flamma and Exkin, was freed. deaf and mute, On the same day N… of Markenscheit, contracted in the arm, was cured. On that day, John of Mastereshusen, contracted. deaf and mute, was cured. On that day, Gerhard of Badenachen, contracted in the legs, May 10 a blind woman. was healed.

[15] On Saturday before the Sunday g Vocem jucunditatis, Sophia of Confluence, wife of Conrad the Rector, May 11 a contracted woman, blind, was illumined. On the Sunday on which is sung Vocem jucunditatis, Elizabeth of Arwiler, contracted in the arm, was healed. On that day Conrad of Boppard, blind in one eye, a blind man, 3 contracted women, was illumined. On the same day, Gertrude of Buckenheim, contracted in the legs, was healed. On that day, Patze of Confluence, contracted in the arm, was cured. On the same day, Kunnegundis of Buthen, contracted in the arm, was cured. a blind man. On that day, Henry of Redershagen, blind in one eye, was illumined. On the following second feria, May 12 4 contracted. On the following second feria, Wernher of lower Ingelheim, contracted in the legs, was healed. On that day, Hildegund of Mainz, contracted in the leg, was healed. On the same day, Beatrice of Boppard, contracted in the legs, was cured. On that day, Alheidis of Leychert, contracted in the arm, was cured. On the following third feria, Gerlac of Titerbach, May 13 2 contracted. contracted in the hand, was healed. On the same day, Otto of Trier, contracted in the legs, was healed. On the fourth feria, namely on the vigil of the Ascension, Getza of Wilren, contracted in the leg, was healed. On the same day, Demud of Spanheim, contracted in the legs, was healed. On that day Henry of Aspenheit, contracted in the legs, was healed. On the same day, Aleydis of Wilrenbach, contracted in the hands and in the legs, was cured. On the fifth feria on the very day of the Ascension of the Lord, Christian of Spanheim, May 15 3 contracted. contracted in the hand and in the leg, was healed. On that day, Elizabeth of Lostein, contracted in the legs, was healed. On the same day, Heddewigis of Spanheim, contracted in the legs, was cured. May 16 blind,

[16] h On the sixth feria, namely on the morrow of the Ascension, Elizabeth of Luxemburg, blind for many days, was illumined. On the same day, contracted. Reynendrudis of Brotheim, contracted in the legs, May 17 contracted. was cured. On Saturday after the Ascension of the Lord, Jutta of Mainz, contracted in the legs, was cured. On that day, Otto of Kederchem, May 18 deaf, contracted, contracted in the leg, was cured. On the Sunday after the Ascension of the Lord, Aleydis of Eltbil, deaf, was cured. On that day, Beatrice of Winckel, contracted in the arm, was cured. On the same day, Conrad of Crucemnachen, blind in one eye, blind. received his sight. On the following second feria, May 19 contracted, namely after the Ascension, Maria of Thurun in Burgundy, contracted in the arm, was cured. On the following third feria, Alheidis of Pingwea, deaf, May 20 deaf contracted, was cured. On the same day, Gerhard of Sofernheit, contracted in the arm, was cured. May 21 mute. On the Octave of the Ascension of the Lord, Alweidis of Loufheim, mute, was cured. May 23 contracted On the sixth feria after the Octave of the Ascension of the Lord, Henry of Rockenhusen, contracted in the arm, was cured. On that day Gunter of Nederen-Hamerstein, May 25 contracted, submerged for many years blind, was illumined. On the day of Pentecost, Catharina of Strasbourg, contracted in the leg, was healed. On that day, Hertliebus of Nassau, submerged in the river i which is called Lahn, and altogether despaired of his life, escaped alive. blind May 26 humpbacked and contracted, blind, On the same day, Wernher of Pingwea, blind in one eye, was healed. On the following second feria Agnes of Andernach, humpbacked and contracted in the leg, was healed. On that day, Benigna of Schonenberg, blind, was illumined. On the same day, Beatrice of Quobery, contracted, a deaf and blind man another blind man: contracted in the legs, was cured. On that day, Henry of Offenbach, deaf and blind in an eye, was cured. On the same day, May 27 mute and contracted. Conrad of Maubach at Waldekech, blind in one eye, was illumined. On the following third feria, Conrad of Confluence, mute and contracted in the arm, May 28 2 contracted, was healed. On the following fourth feria, Hazecha daughter of Frederic of Stone, contracted from infancy in the legs, was cured. On that day, Hadewigis of Steyngouwen at Stoltzenberg, contracted in the legs for many days, a blind man, was healed. On the same day, Conrad of Breubach, blind in one eye, was healed: on the following fifth feria, May 29 blind and contracted, Beatrice of Oppenheim, blind and contracted in the legs, was cured. On that day, Catharine of Mainz, daughter of Ludwig the weaver, submerged, was cured. submerged, May 30 deaf and mute, blind. May 31 4 contracted. On the following sixth feria, Bertha of Babenberch, deaf and mute, was healed. On the same day, Margaret of Worms, for ten years blind, was illumined. On the following Saturday, Hertwicus of Laudinsborch, contracted in his hands from birth, was healed. On that day, John of Semheit, contracted in the legs, was healed. On the same day, Jacob of Loffbach, contracted in the legs, was healed. On that day, Peter of Enghersha, June 1 dropsical, contracted in the legs, was cured. On Sunday, namely after the Octave of Pentecost, Gerhard of Mainz, dropsical, was healed. June 2 a blind woman, a deaf and mute man, On the following second feria, namely of Marcellinus and Peter, Odilia of Winescheim, blind in one eye, received her sight. On the same day, Tielmann of Sturburch, deaf and mute, was cured. On the following third feria, Alheidis of Mainz, June 3 a blind woman, blind, was illumined.

ANNOTATIONS.

FINDING OF THE BODY

And its translation into a new casket. From the Ms. of Trier.

Wernher boy, slain at Wesel, deposited at Bacharach, on the Rhine in the diocese of Trier (St.)

BHL Number: 8863

FROM MSS.

[17] a In the name of the Lord, the Mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen. Winand of Stega, Doctor of Decrees, Pastor of Bacharach, to all and each of the faithful in Christ, present and future, hearers of these presents, inspectors, or others in whatever way gazing with the eye of the heart, greeting in him, without whom there is no salvation. b Long indeed up to the present diverse faithful of Christ, having the zeal of God, at diverse times, and with diverse and various introductions, With various people asking, our ears, as follows, have impelled. Some indeed with truth as aid were complaining, both lest the body of Wernher by contact with the earth should putrefy, that the exterior oak chest, the mausoleum of Blessed Wernher, resting in the chapel of Saint Cunibert of Bacharach, had sunk so far to contact with the earth (which however before appeared to be placed above the earth as if by an ell) so that by contact with the same earth it was credibly presumed to be rotted: whence the body of so blessed a man, although in age young, could easily be torn limb from limb; especially at this time of the pilgrimage of the most blessed Mary ever Virgin at Aachen, especially by Slavs and Hungarians, having zeal of such a body from ancient time up to the present. Others asserting to these that the same youth, also that it might be known the whole had not been taken away the witness of Christ, like the innocents of Christ, namely most holy in morals, was not enclosed in that chest. Thirdly, others opining that the same youth, most happy in the attestation of miracles, had been placed there: but that his arm and right hand had been or were translated to Windsbach. That therefore the ambiguities and dangers of all and each of these might be removed; or in part; it was humbly besought of us by our parishioners of both sexes, the more powerful, and having more zeal for divine worship than the rest, that the same oak chest, secured only with one simple lock, certain persons being present, whose service for the sake of their offices was relevant; and also public Notaries and Advocates and other sworn of the Most Serene Prince and our Lord, Lord Ludwig Count Palatine of the Rhine, Archdapifer of the Holy Roman Empire, and most illustrious Duke of Bavaria, zealous for this Blessed Wernher, and chief promoter of his structure, and also witnesses worthy of faith, without violence we should paternally deign to unseal; so that truth being discovered, any superstition being removed, true faith, placed on the mountain of truth, should stand in the hearts of our Parishioners infallibly unshaken.

[18] We therefore Winand, Doctor and Pastor aforesaid, being unable to deaden our ear with deafness stopped up to such just petitions, Pastor of Bacharach, lest to the peril more perilous things be added, favorably consenting to their pious prayers and reasonable ones; and lest anything should be able to be sinisterly suspected, having taken with us providently and with deliberate mind, the honorable Lords Hermann Bere, our senior Chaplain; John of Laudenburg, Notary of c the Toll-house of the aforesaid people of Bacharach; John Prume, Co-notary of the same Toll-house and master of the work of Saint Wernher often touched; before honored men Stephen Prume, senior Advocate; and Hermann Doirenremher, junior Advocate although of old age, John Seliche and two public notaries, and public Notaries, subscribed as worthy of faith in this matter, mature and authentic persons, as fellow-witnesses and public Notaries, the same chest, mausoleum, or tomb, we opened, and in it we found another cedar tomb, he had the tomb opened similar in all respects to the tombs, in which the poor are wont to be buried, gnawed by little worms with infection; but sewn or coated with a waxen cloth, also by age here and there pierced, except on top. But on top the tomb itself had neither covering nor cloth; but clay earth, placed beyond the middle of the tomb as if compacted: the right arm is found, through which the right arm, from the shoulders to the middle, d showed itself protruding out: and two other reed-like bones of the same anterior part of the arm, although they had fallen upon the earth itself; yet seemed to us once to have been extended and articulated to the hand wrapped round with silver, which is seen upon the oak tomb; whose hand, below the lip of the same tomb, a flesh or sinewy joining is still palpable.

[19] the head, At these things when we began from the northern part gently to cast out the earth of the interior tomb, we found the head of the same Christ's Athlete of so pious remembrance, bound with a scarlet fillet, otherwise and more commonly with a wreath of red silk, on which appeared silvered gilt roses, corals, and pearls. There was also the same head surrounded by a silken sudary, on which at first sight most ancient traces of blood appeared. That venerable head also was tenaciously joined to the blessed body, the body lying on the back lying supine: and the same head had beneath it a pillow of black silk, filled with odorous violets, to which most aptly suits the time of his passion; nay, which is a matter of spiritual joy, from beneath these we were finding the pruning-knife of the same excellent boy, with which seeking the sustenance of life he was dissolving the vice of the vine-branch. After this the earth being gently lifted, with the intestines removed the whole body appeared, the head, and chin, and each of the teeth in its order of primeval nature duly constituted. There appeared however the arm and left hand of the same body lying on its back, with the other members firmly and sinewy and as if fleshly joined to the same body, bound up and ungulate, and the leg, and right foot most whole: likewise the left leg, whose foot the flesh and bones were coming apart; whence we took a small bone thin enough, extending to the length of a finger or a little more. most whole, Likewise we found the same venerable one in the tomb, as has been said, with truth as witness, most whole, and sewn with waxed linen, which linen however was worn to worthlessness by its most ancient age. Besides we found, two woods pierced to the length of arms, with 2 pieces of wood and a reed, showing the testimony of such noble disposition and of his passion (as we presume) and one reed, as we presume, rose-like, of one year, extending to the length of the body itself, and perhaps representing the palm of his martyrdom; gnawed however, and nearly dust. Whence we placed the same with the ashen earth in another chest, in which we enclosed the earth, or ash, found and extracted in the inner tomb of the body.

[20] All which things and each, as has been said, without any superstition or introduction of any new thing, it is replaced in the same tomb, humbly and with simple heart performed; the body itself, cleansed from dust and other defilements, in its tomb, although by age as if consumed, and the sudary, cushion, and silken wreath, and also linen, as it lay, we left lying immovably; placing upon the face and body of so noble a worker of miracles a white silk and another clean cloth, lest by new dusts the body be defiled, whose soul we piously trust reigns with Christ. The same, under safer locks not the interior tomb, which before we had not found closed, but the exterior oak one we strengthened with safer locks. Its key also to the common treasury (of whose keys diverse ones are entrusted to diverse of ours) we providently enclosed: placed above the earth. and the oak chest itself above the earth, as it seems, lest by its contact it should putrefy, we ordered to be raised; and to the ineffable testimony of the aforementioned things with our seals, and the inscription of the Notaries and witnesses, we applied the strength of firmness. Whence it is not to be doubted, that that Saint is not elsewhere, or any part of him (excepting a piece of the left foot quite small) than in his first sarcophagus, nor his hand and arm anywhere than there to be venerated e. In most evident testimony of all which things and each, we have commanded our two subscribed scribes and public Notaries, that together with the strengthening of our Bacharach church's greater seal and our own; an authentic instrument is drawn up and of all the seals of the above and below-written witnesses, concerning these they should draw up a public instrument. These things were done in the year of the Lord 1426, on Thursday, in the year 1426, July 11, the 11th of the month of July, f from the ninth hour up to the hour of Vespers, in the fourth indiction, of the Pontificate of the most holy in Christ Father, and our Lord, Lord Martin by divine providence Pope the fifth, in his ninth year, present there the venerable and discreet men above mentioned, the Lords Hermann Bere, senior Chaplain; John of Laudenburg, scribe of the toll-house, otherwise Notary; John Prume, and his companion; Stephen and Hermann the Advocates, and also John Selig, fellow-witnesses and instigators, with their seals, together with ours the aforementioned seals attesting.

[21] by a public Notary, And I Thomas Cube of Bacharach, Cleric of the Trier diocese, public Notary by Imperial authority, because to all and each of the aforesaid I was present, and I thus handled them, and saw and heard the opening of the mausoleum, the finding of Blessed Wernher, and the fortifying with safer locks, the enclosing of keys, together with the aforementioned witnesses, thus as has been said, to be done, I saw and heard: therefore this present public instrument I have drawn up thence, published, and together with the seals of all above-mentioned, by the command of the aforesaid Lord my Pastor I have signed; also with my usual and customary sign and name, I have subscribed; and out of superabundance I have appended my seal, in evident sign and testimony of all and each of the above-mentioned specially called and asked for this.

[21] with another subscribing, And I John Kese of Bacharach, Cleric of the Trier diocese, public Notary by Imperial authority, because to all and each of the aforesaid I was present, and I thus handled them, and the opening of the mausoleum, the finding of Blessed Wernher, and the fortifying with safer locks, the enclosing of the keys, together with the aforementioned witnesses thus as has been said, I saw and heard, therefore this present public instrument by the command of the aforesaid Lord my Pastor thence I have drawn up, published; and through the aforesaid Lord Thomas, public Notary, faithfully by his own hand by the command of my same Lord Pastor I have subscribed, and with my usual and customary sign and name together with the appending of the seals of all and each of the above-written I have signed, specially for this called, asked, and required in faith and testimony of all and each of the above-mentioned g.

ANNOTATIONS.

In the History of the same finding aforementioned followed a certain summary of miracles performed thereafter, which here we annex in these words.

LESSON IV., LESSON V., LESSON VI.

Although that most blessed boy, immediately having attained the victory of his passion, performed very many stupendous miracles, contained under the Gospel truth, on the blind, lame, withered, deaf and dead; and after these, through the lapse of times, as if silently many similar ones (as in Lord John Humzerich, venerable Presbyter paralytic for twelve years, it became clear) the Omnipotent however and wonderful in his Saints God, in these times after his new Reposition, more numerously, more generously, more pleasantly, and more gloriously through his most beloved Soldier flashes with miracles, the more from the desire of service, Very many miracles are performed, and of the structure of his basilica we burn more eagerly in industry. Whence within the space of the next half emerging year, a certain grand old man of Lorch, frantic, for thirty years suffering, he healed. Dropsical from Mannebach, male and female, already almost placed on the exhalation of their spirit, he cured most quickly. A four-year lame man on both sides of the body he restored to health: and to a woman of Heymbach he imparted this same benefit. A blind and deaf daughter with her blind mother of Diepach he healed: nor any boy, not submerged in sin, feeble or infirm did he dismiss without the benefit of health. Moreover the daughter of the Scultetus ancient of Bacharach, from the falling sickness by the grace of Christ he freed. Crebisz, a townsman of Bacharach, in a withered arm he reformed; and the son of Georius, master of the fabric of Saint Wernher, placed in his death-struggle, he restored to pristine health. A tailor residing in Diepach, long suffering in his leg, he gladdened with health: and a certain rich merchant, of Neumagen in Pinguia, perilously wounded in the roundness of his shin with a nail, he enriched with very quick health. Most generous is what follows, the relief. A certain noble fearing to name himself here, A mocker of the Saint is freed from the peril of submersion once held that most blessed Holy Boy in derision: who by his enemies driven into the Moselle, and by the flood from his horse into the abyss with his arms weighing him down torn and submerged, invoked the holy Boy; the Boy was present, and extended to him a helping hand, leading him out to the port of safety. And what is sweeter, the horse follows its master: mounted upon whom he carried him to the desired dwelling with his enemies deluded: who with a wax image of three florins visited the Saint humbly, without expression of his name. More generous and a most sweet consolation of parents, 2 dead are raised: although of the poor. Two boys, on different days and in different places, namely at Perscheit and at Bupach, dead and by glacial cold lifeless, invoked by the parents, he restored to life. And these are a few written out of many, as is evident by many public instruments, by the seals of many worthy of faith, and by the testimony of truthful men, and by other writings, placed around the epitaph of that Saint. Behold after this now most recently came a certain shepherd, named John, a shepherd in Commede near Semery; and brought forth his son with offerings, named Nicholas: whom, by Baptism and his faith, he asserted, had just recently been sick unto death, and long placed in ecstasy; a dying boy is healed: he and his mother also had entirely despaired of the ten-year-old boy's life: whence to them placed in lamentation running up women, compassionating them persuaded, that they should vow their son with a quarter of a pound of wax to Saint Wernher; so that him whom they considered dead, by the grace of God with the Saint's prayers they might see again alive: which also happened, and immediately the youth yawned, and within two hours was restored to the most whole health, whom such we many saw.

LESSON VII.

By the grace of devotion if anyone should wish to see further things about these, let him see his as it were tripartite Legend with sweet-sounding Responsories and Antiphons, after his now new Reposition, a blasphemer is punished, not without admiration found in the old letters, with the note that at the time of the now written miracle, most recently, a certain servant of a certain tailor, called Loschin, at Trisz on the Moselle opposite Cardonis (as the noble and truthful man John of Senen and others most known to us have related) uttered blasphemous words against Saint Wernher; soon seized by fury, after a few days, closed the day of his life frantic. Further a certain Bavarian youth of Strabingin, a dying boy is cured and a blind one, at Germersheim submerged in the Rhine, by the vow of bystanders after three hours to life he recalled. Moreover another youth, blinded by a wondrous blast of wind, a vow being made, on the eighth night more wondrously he illumined…

LESSON VIII.

In the time of this year in which the Most Reverend aforesaid Father and Lord, Jordan of Orsini, Indulgences are granted Bishop of Albano, Cardinal etc. in the Bacharach endowment, with his Bishops, Doctors and household resided, and saw the Saint with his own, honored him with prayers and gifts, ordered by looking him to be placed in a clean tomb; and granted by himself, his Coepiscopos of the household, and the Archbishop of Besançon, two hundred twenty days of Indulgences, namely in the year of the Lord 1426, on the morrow of the Assumption, then flowed in new, as has been written, miracles, in praise of the highest majesty…

LESSON IX.

What, beyond all that has been said of water, appear in the varied, diverse, very many votive offerings are offered: distinct and manifold offerings of those healed. For it is true and most known, that besides notable gold and silver and copper in pots excessively weighty, in this half present year, there has been offered in wax by the hand of the faithful so much, that notwithstanding the fixed light of one or more candles, more than three thousand wax pieces hang around his sarcophagus, growing beyond the fire's consumption daily… f The characters agree: for in the said year 1426, with Cycle of the Sun 7, the Dominical letter was F; and Pope Martin had been created on November 11 of the year 1417.

The Bacharach people decree In the Trier Codex, there follows first a testimonial letter, how the above and below-written reposition by no temerity, but by the Lord Cardinal Legate de latere, and consequently by Apostolic authority was performed; and by the same authority for the time the Relics of Blessed Wernher be shown. It is all written in German, in the name of Henry Wolf of Spanheim, Burggrave of Bacharach: of Altmann Bettendorffer, Esquire; Nicholas Germersheim, Cube; and John of Laudenburg, Scribes of the Bacharach toll-house; Stephen Prume and John Prume his son: Hermann Dornkemher, Stephen Bruningh and Henry Busze brothers: Ewald Kremher and Ghelmann Lorze, John Seliche and Emeric Hunne, citizens of Bacharach; attesting, that Lord Legate, with two bishops assisting him, gave Indulgences, about which presently; and ordered the body to be transferred into a new casket in the presence of Lord John Schallerman, Judge of the Roman Curia and Pontifical Chaplain; Lord Angelus de Prato-Joannis, from the ordination of the Lord Legate and Lord Paulus de Capollanis, Doctors of Both Laws; and mandated that the Lord Pastor and the aforesaid, and his and their successors, should open the exterior chest of Saint Wernher, four times in each year, as long as the fabric of the chapel shall last; and afterwards once or twice in the year: so that the interior chest remain closed and covered with citrus glass coverings, and not be moved by a lay hand; and again be closed, after it has been sufficiently done for the people wishing to see: and that the aforesaid, with the consent of the Legate, chose for that ceremony of opening the chest, on which days the body ought to be shown to the people, four feasts, namely of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle; of Stephen the Martyr, immediately after Christmas; of the Dedication of Bacharach on the following day, that is on the second Feria after the Sunday Quasi modo, and the solemnity of SS. Peter and Paul the Apostles. Concerning which was made this public instrument, and secured with their seals, in the year 1426; on the day after the Assumption of Blessed Mary: which day, by the rite of consecrating herbs, through the Rhine and Moselle provinces even now used, they name the Consecration of herbs. This Instrument however was made at Saint Wernher's before witnesses, reverend Priests, Lord James Mantel and Lord John Beseher, Vicars in Bacharach, John Himpurg schoolmaster, John Kannegeiszer and John Moir citizens of Bacharach, called for this.

There follow II Indulgences of 180 days, which Lord Jordan the Cardinal and Legate de latere, summary of the Bulls of Card. Orsini, and of two Bishops and his Bishops, Jacobus of Urbino, and Bernard of Cavaillon, these indeed each forty days, the former one hundred, gave; each one strengthening the diploma with his seals, at Speyer, in the year from the Nativity of the Lord 1426, the fourth Indiction, but on Wednesday the tenth of the month of July, etc.

III How the altar of Saint Gabriel was consecrated in honor of the Annunciation, and of Saints Vincent, Apollinaris, and Etherius spouse of Saint Ursula, of Blessed Wernher and of other Saints, whose Relics were reposed in the same altar by the aforementioned, Legate and Bishop of Cavaillon, consecrating the altar itself before the Legate, in the year 1426, on Monday, the fifth of the month of August, on which was the feast of Our Lady of the Snows: on which day the same willed, the dedication of the same altar to be and shall be on every future years, on the already mentioned feast of the Snows, and also on the very day of the Annunciation of the most blessed Christ-bearer; and they granted on the feasts of the Assumption, Purification, Annunciation of Blessed Mary, Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Octave of the same, of the Epiphany and its Octave, of Palms, of Easter and through its Octave, of the Ascension, of Pentecost, of the Body of Christ and of the Octaves of the same, of the Trinity, of John the Baptist, of Michael the Archangel, of All the Apostles singly, of the four Evangelists and of the four Doctors, of Laurence and of SS. Mary Magdalene, Margaret, Catherine, and on the feast of All Saints, the Legate one hundred, Bernard forty, and James Bishop of Urbino also forty days of Indulgences; and the aforesaid Indulgences, on the aforesaid feasts, to the church of Saint Peter of Bacharach, and also to the chapel of Saint Anne of Stega its daughter, they prorogued; by a public instrument drawn up concerning the matter, in the year and day as above, by Thomas Cube, as elsewhere, Notary.

IV Indulgences of the Archbishop of Besançon of forty days, of Theobald Archbishop of Besançon. first indeed to the aforementioned chapel of Saint Wernher, on the days above and of both holy Crosses, granted and prorogued to the chapel of Saint Anne and also of Blessed Wernher (certainly some other from the principal one in Bacharach) at Bacharach on the day of Saint Michael the Archangel: but on the morrow, at Bacharach, in the year of the Lord 1426, on the very day of Saint Jerome, amplified manifoldly, by the tenor which follows.

V Theobald of Rubeus-mons, by the grace of God Archbishop of Besançon, to all Christ's faithful, with the knowledge of the undersigned, greeting in him who is the true salvation of all Christ's faithful. The Relics of the most blessed witness of Christ, the Martyr Wernher, yesterday placed whole, with the devotion with which we could, by seeing them with ours; praising in the Lord his sanctity from the merit of his life and the manifold aggregation of signs and miracles (about which by testimony worthy of faith, as appears, we have been sufficiently advised); Indulgences possible to us of his chapel to be built, in honor of God and of the aforesaid Saint, and also the humble prayers of Lord Winand of Stega, Doctor of Decrees, Pastor of Bacharach, our dearest friend in Christ, we bestowed, on certain festivities of the year, which also to other chapels we prorogued. But now the mother church of Saint Peter of Bacharach, at the instance also of the same Lord Doctor, before others desiring to honor; the same forty days of Indulgences, on all the days written in the said prior letters, and also on any other days on which it treats of Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, or Virgins and Widows, and also through all Lent and the Lord's Advent, and the individual days of the Four Seasons, to the church of Saint Peter aforesaid, and also to Blessed Mary the Virgin in lower Heymbach, and to Saint Peter in the castle of Stega, chapels subject to the aforesaid church of Bacharach, by the force of the present we mercifully prorogue. This Theobald however survived three more years. He died at Rome in the year 1429, September 16.

VII Henry by divine mercy of the title of Saint Eusebius Presbyter Cardinal of the sacrosanct Roman Church, commonly called of England (since from the blood of the Kings of England he was assumed by Martin V in the year 1426) through all Germany and the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia Legate of the Apostolic See, considering, that the fabric of the chapel in the town of Bacharach...praiseworthily begun and now elaborated more than halfway (as Altmann Bettendorsser, master of the same fabric, by his petition has shown) is so costly, that for its completion the aids of Christ's faithful are very much opportune; to all who through the feasts often above named and their Octaves shall have devoutly visited the aforesaid chapel, and to the fabric and completion of this kind have extended helping hands, on each of the festivities and celebration days one hundred, and of the Octaves and on the six days of the festivities of Pentecost immediately following, forty days from the penances enjoined mercifully he relaxes; by letters perpetually to be valid, given at Heidelberg, in the Worms diocese, on the 3rd day before the Nones of January, in the 11th year of the Pontificate of the most holy in Christ Father and Lord Lord Martin Pope V: which was the year of Christ 1428.

HISTORY OF THE MIRACLES.

By public authority described, in the year 1426 and the two following. From the MS. of the Trier College.

Wernher boy, slain at Wesel, deposited at Bacharach, on the Rhine in the diocese of Trier (St.)

BHL Number: 0000

FROM MSS.

INSTRUMENT I.

[1] In the year 1426 In the name of the Lord, Amen. By this present public instrument let it be evidently manifest to all, that in the year from the Nativity of the same 1426, the fourth indiction, of the Pontificate of the most holy in Christ Father and Lord our Lord Martin by divine providence Pope the fifth, in his ninth year, on the first day of the month of August, at the hour of Vespers or thereabouts, in the cemetery of the church of Saint Peter parish of Bacharach, Trier diocese, in the presence of the venerable and circumspect man, with the Pastor of Bacharach, 5 Presbyters, and 4 others, Lord Winand of Stega, Doctor of Decrees, Pastor of Bacharach, and also the honorable Lords, Hermann Bere, Hermann Corbache, of the aforesaid Lord Pastor Chaplains; Arnold Kornhere, John Kelnhere, James Mantel Presbyters of the Bacharach Church aforesaid; Stephen Prume, John Gerkin, Stephen Bruning, John Seliche, for sealing the subscribed; and of the undersigned witnesses called and asked for this, and of me the undersigned public Notary also legitimately required for this, there personally appeared the honest man Gerlac Gingke of Breytscheid of the Trier diocese aforesaid: Gerlac Gingke under oath testifies, who for the clear investigation of the bare truth, solemnly sworn by the aforesaid Lord Pastor, that by the faith received in Baptism, and under the obtestation of divine judgment and perpetual damnation and eternal salvation; he should tell himself and all bystanders the bare and clear truth, of what matter of things had happened around him a little before; with deliberate and rejoicing mind answering, he broke into this voice: I once, by God's permission touched by the falling sickness, falling to the ground, thrust one foot into the fire: not using the sense of touch, I did not perceive the heat of the fire; [that three years ago touched by the falling sickness, and fallen into the fire, and in the foot injured.] and so I was so injured in the same foot by the heat of the fire, that by myself alone, for almost three years, and without supports I could never walk a step: and in the middle of these years, by no medicament through anyone I could be healed, rather I had in some manner despaired of ever being healed. But on these days, when I heard other men of both sexes visiting the tomb of Blessed Wernher, by the divine hand helping, by the intercession of the same Blessed Wernher the martyr, to have been cured of various languors; I also vowed, that I would visit the aforesaid tomb, and would offer a gift. A small interval of space having passed, I rose with supports; and brought to the tomb was healed. and with the aid of conductors most grievously I ascended to the tomb: invoking the prayers of all those standing around the tomb, that I might merit to find grace, and there by myself and them prayers to God being poured forth; at once I was better in my foot: and leaving my supports, without being conducted, alone from the mountain step by step descending I bought wax for the oblation: and again alone ascending, in praise of God Omnipotent and in honor of Blessed Wernher, before his tomb according to my promise I offered. These things were done in the year, month, hour, etc. as above; present master John Loley Rector of the scholars of Bacharach, 13 persons attesting the truth. Paul Kempen, Peter Cranenmeyster, Conrad Eleszeszer, Peter Gruszer, John Sureszig, John Ginglre, Peter Gingk, Gutta and Catharine Reyensteynes, Nesa Scrits, Agnes Rachen, and Agnes Kempen, townsmen of Bacharach, witnesses called to the aforesaid, equally also asked.

[2] Item, in the year of the Indiction, and of the Pontificate as above, on the third day of the month of August, before the same Pastor and the rest, appeared a discreet man, Master Georgius, now having his domicile in Heidelberg, stonemason of the Most Illustrious Prince Lord Ludwig Count Palatine of the Rhine, sworn as above, said, his son Wentzlaus, then standing by, in the left foot had been burdened with such great languor, 2 laboring with an incurable pain of foot, is cured: that he himself thought that foot burned with the fire of hell; and all physicians and surgeons refused to treat him. At length with various treatments tried, he vowed the boy to Blessed Wernher at his tomb, to offer a waxen foot weighing one pound; at once he was better, and was healed. Also appeared Jeckel Emer, 3 he wins a lawsuit. of the day of Easter; relating that he had been suspended in the pendency of a lawsuit, for the space of one year, and hindered; so that, although from just causes he knew himself to proceed, yet he could not in any way triumph: he vowed a vow to Blessed Wernher, and on the next juridical day he obtained what he intended and triumphed. a woman in labor is freed, Also Catharine Petri Ythers, of Bacharach, twice pregnant, only abortive could bear; but a third time placed in the distress of childbirth, she vowed a vow to Saint Wernher; and so she brought forth a boy alive, who, Baptized, passed into heaven.

[3] Also on the eighth day of the month of August, near the forum, near the house of John Selig, at the hour of None or thereabouts, appeared Conrad Emicher of Comede, 5 Contracted in both hands is healed: a layman of thirty years, related, that he had been contracted in both hands: he vowed a vow to Blessed Wernher, and offered two waxen hands, and was healed, present several of the above-written and honest men, Henry Fuedersacke of Stega, and John Buysze; Lords Henry Mannedache Vicar of Bacharach, Henry Richehre, John Auspurg Clerics, of the Bamberg and Mainz diocese, witnesses called and asked equally to the aforesaid. And I Thomas Cube of Bacharach, Cleric of the Trier diocese, with the Notary juridically recording everything. public Notary by Imperial authority, because to the oath, admonition and examination of the aforesaid persons, and to all the others and each, together with the aforementioned witnesses, while thus, as has been said, I was present, and thus saw it done, and heard: therefore this present public instrument, sealed with the seals of very many persons above written, thence I drew up, wrote, subscribed, and reduced into this public form, published, with my usual and customary sign and name, together with the appending of the seals of the greater Church of Bacharach, of the Lord Pastor and of the above-written persons I consigned, in faith and strength of all the aforesaid, for this called and required.

INSTRUMENT II.

[4] In the name of the Lord… let it be manifest to all Christ's faithful of the ages, that… on the twenty-fourth day of the month of August… at the hour of None or thereabouts, in the hall of the dwelling of the venerable and circumspect man, Lord Winand of Stega, Doctor of Decrees… appeared honest matrons, Elizabeth Wernheri, and Catharine her daughter, wife of Jacob Ortim, of Perscheit, of the Trier diocese; bringing forth there the legitimate boy of the already touched Catharine, 1 A dead boy is raised. of the age of one year and six weeks, named Jacob; asserting, that he had been miraculously raised from the dead by the prayers of Blessed Wernher. But the Lord Pastor himself, as a prudent and law-practiced man, unwilling to believe every spirit, quoting the writing, Try the spirits, whence for the clear investigation of the bare truth of this deed, solemnly swore the same honest women, worthy of faith and known to the whole territory, that by the faith received in Baptism, and by testimony of divine judgment and perpetual damnation and eternal salvation, they should tell him and all bystanders the clear, bare, and most manifest truth, what of the deed had happened concerning this little boy. 1 John 4, 1 Who most deliberately answered, that the same little boy, named Jacob, already fifteen days past, with a certain languor growing heavy, was weighed down by the greatest infirmity, and at length overcome by death, and truly dead, with all joints loosed from life, truly lacking life, cooled; and the soul separated, the cadaver, for an hour and more, for making burial, had been set apart. When these things stood, the sad woman herself, Catharine named as above, having no refuge, except of Omnipotent God and his most blessed Martyr Saint Wernher; that body, nay rather by faith as if a boy animated in body, she vowed to the tomb of the same Saint Wernher, with a fourth part of a pound of wax, as a poor little one, not knowing what more to do, firmly believing by his prayers he would revive. At which vow made, at the lamentation of the mother the son revived, as both she with the mother testified: and of all the neighbors, not a rumor, nor mere fame, but pure truth was publishing this, and publishes it at present. We saw the boy sound before us; the mother, the grandmother, and other witnesses testifying that he had been dead.

[5] At this on the same day, and hour, and place. Elsa, her daughter, wife of John Fredeman of Nedern on the day of Easter appeared: and by similar beseeching and by the testimony of worthy men they established the truth, that both had been deaf; two deaf are healed, one also blind, the other paralytic. and Elsa the mother blind, and Elsa the daughter paralytic: and at the vow of visiting Saint Wernher, in the noonday light they proved themselves from every infirmity of deafness, blindness, and paralytic disease most perfectly healed; and rendered their vow with half a pound of wax. These things were done in the presence of the prelibated Lord our Pastor, and honorable men, Lords Hermann Bere, Henry Salhert Chaplains, James Mantel, John Trutman Vicars of the Church of Bacharach; and also John of Laudenburg Notary of the Toll-house of the Lord Duke, John Selig, and Emmerich Hunne, John Tzingk Bell-ringer, Henry Kynne townsmen of Bacharach witnesses called to the aforesaid by the aforesaid Lord Pastor, and otherwise deputed and legitimately required for these. And I Thomas Cube, etc. as above, which having been once here noted, let be supplied in mind, also after the other Instruments which follow; as also the words at the beginning signed with points, to be sought from the first Instrument. But note in the following it is always written "Epilenticus" for "Epilepticus."

INSTRUMENT III.

[6] In the name of the Lord… Let it be manifest that… on the twenty-ninth day of the month of August… on the mountain of Saint Wernher, before the chapel of Saint Cunibert… appeared, first, Peter Scholteisz, and Catharine his wife, of Mannebach, at the request of the aforesaid Lord Pastor, a dropsical incurable woman is healed, most seriously and conjuratively made, under good faith and by the force of the Christian religion, acknowledged, that the same Catharine for three years and more had been dropsical, and not able by any medicament to be healed: she vowed a vow to Saint Wernher, about to visit his tomb with three pounds of wax; and that same night she was brought to the last examination of life: but falling asleep she rested; and in the morning awakening, she felt herself to be well. Whence asked by her husband, who almost altogether despaired of her, she joyfully answered. I am well; but I feel myself sprinkled with water on all sides. And a recent opening was found above the navel, whence from the body at one time three quarters of water and more; and at another time also now, which was the third feria after the feast of Blessed Mary Magdalene, sleeping quietly, on another night, they said a great abundance of water flowed out. We saw her before us as above well, and honorable men Lords Hermann Bere Chaplain senior, John Kese junior, Stephen Prume, Engelman Lotze, John Busze, Henry Krunge, John Bruning, John Prume, John Selig, John Tzingk, James Master of the hospital, Peter Truden, and many other persons of both sexes worthy of faith, witnesses called and asked to these. Also on the same day, hour, and place, as above, while these things were being done, by chance came upon Ermetrud, wife of Peter Scultetus of Bupache, of the Trier diocese, with other honest men, and under faith and Baptism by her Redeemer she professed; that her son, a boy of four years, yesterday, that is on the vigil of the beheading of Blessed John the Baptist, by the kick of a horse was struck in the heart, with so strong a blow, that even the wood of the whip was dissipated into two parts, and the heart broken, and the boy killed, and a dead boy is raised, dead and cold as stone, for two hours. Which having passed, the mother invoked Blessed Wernher; and after this with great lamentation in Blessed Virgin and Blessed Wernher's aid firmly trusted: and the boy lifeless for two hours, returned to life unharmed. This miracle done yesterday, today by the fame of truth is brought forth, present witnesses as above, witnesses.

[7] Moreover on the same day, hour, place, as above, appeared John Criebesz cobbler, townsman of Bacharach, relating that he had been contracted in his right arm for a year and a half: 1 contracted at the tomb of Blessed Wernher with the vow rendered, he was healed; present witnesses as above. Further the honorable men Lords Hermann Bere, Hermann Corbache, Henry Salhart, Chaplains of the aforesaid Lord Pastor; related that in the name of the church of Bacharach, in the presence of many honest women of Rudisheim, they had received a most manifest sign and testimony from John Snabel, tailor of Aschaffenburg; 2 a sick man with incurable disease, that he from an incurable wound (for the healing of which he would most gladly have given thirty florins) by the payment of his vow and the intercession of Blessed Wernher, received the fullest health. By a similar confession Geruse, born of Heymbach, contracted in both legs, 3 a contracted woman, at the tomb of Blessed Wernher confessed herself to have been healed. At length, on the same day, the noble boy Otto, son of Otto Feyszt of Schonenburg, having a mortal breast, passed out strangury; a candle of his own length offered, by the intercession of Blessed Wernher he was freed. Also on the same day Catharine, formerly from the infirmities of deafness and blindness, 4 a deaf and blind woman, by the intercession of Blessed Wernher freed, offered her boy (so destitute of health that it was not thought he would be himself, but another) at the tomb of Blessed Wernher with a certain amount of wax: 5 a very sick boy, at once he was freed, present witnesses many above with others subscribed, and Lord James Schieszer Vicar of the church of Bacharach, John Cantarifusoris, and John Serratoris, also witnesses called to these.

[8] And finally on the penultimate day of August, since a rumor had come before, fame and truth about the offspring of Wolf, once Scultetus of Bacharach, namely, that the same boy was an epileptic, and had fallen very many times: and therefore had been vowed two separate times to Blessed Valentine at Kedriche of the Mainz diocese, nor had the desired effect of the vow followed: and a vow had been sent forth to Blessed Wernher for the same epileptic, and immediately he was healed; the prelibated Lord Pastor and Community, 6 an epileptic most ardently desiring to explore the truth of this matter, although faith had been made to them most sufficiently; nevertheless they sent their special familiars and subjects Hermann Corbache the Chaplain, John Trutman Vicar, John Loley Master of the scholars of the Bacharach church, and me the Notary public subscribed to both parents of the aforesaid epileptic, to most faithfully explore the business. And although the fullest faith about this miracle had been made to the aforesaid Lord Pastor; yet he desired to find someone who would give thanks to God; although there was no male who would do it. For entering the house, the most honest woman Catharine began to narrate all in order, asserting that her offspring at Kedriche had fallen very many times; and that that vow had not helped him, but Saint Wernher's. And while she for the praise of God was narrating, there came upon us a man named * Lupus, as if Nabal of Carmel, and dismissed us all dishonorably; and did not give thanks to God for this benefit, present two Presbyters, the master of the scholars, and me the Notary above-written. In testimony of all these things the present instrument to the honor of God, of the most glorious Christ-bearer, of all Saints, and of Blessed Wernher, by the command and request of the aforesaid Lord Pastor, has been drawn up, and with the seals of the Bacharach church, the greater and of the same Pastor and of the honorable men and Lords, in place of the witnesses above-written, sealed, for the greater strength of the Christian faith, and of God's miracles.

[9] We were in the year 1660 on the 14th day of August in the aforesaid Kedrich or Kidrich, On the pilgrimage to Saint Valentine at Kedrich. an altogether distinguished and ample town, while from Mainz we ran over to the Erbach monastery; and we saw from the alms, flowing together by the celebrated pilgrimage to Saint Valentine, a magnificent church; built of squared stones; and the relics of Saint Valentine himself honored in a large silver herm, to be compared with the more distinguished which it is permitted to see elsewhere, and not so long ago established from the spoils of the deceased Pastor; who, having protested that he would make his testament in due time so that the goods he was to leave would not come into the hands of Archiepiscopal Harpies, merited that it be declared invalid, and all things far otherwise than he had decided himself were expended. But the feast of Saint Valentine was celebrated on the 14th of February, where we have treated of various holy Valentines.

ANNOTATIONS.

* perhaps "bled."

* otherwise Kannengeisser

* German "Wolf"

INSTRUMENT IV.

[10] In the name of the Lord… on the first day of the month of September, on the very day of Blessed Giles Confessor within the solemnities of the divine Masses, in the vestibule of the Parish church of Saint Peter of Bacharach… of his own motion, to the praise of the Omnipotent, of his Mother, of the Holy Church and of Blessed Wernher Martyr; Hansman John of Cuba, townsman in Loirche, sixty years old, a frenetic is freed, of honest conversation and grave morals, as could appear at first sight, and enjoying full liberty, publicly professed, how he for thirty next continuous years and more, had suffered a vehement pain of the head, so that he thought he would become frenetic; so that he could not sleep, nor could he eat or drink: but hearing the fame of the miracles of Blessed Wernher, he vowed himself with a quarter of a pound of wax to the body of the aforesaid Saint Wernher, completed his vow; and thence already received the full health of that defect. Upon which things thus recognized the prelibated Lord our Pastor, together with the confessing one, requested me the public Notary, that thereupon I draw up for the memory of the present and future ages a public instrument, of the greater Church of Bacharach, and also of the aforesaid Lord Pastor, of Lord Arnold Kurnherz, John Kelnherz, Henry Salhart, John Anthony Vicars, strengthened with their seals, in the presence of the venerable and discreet men already sealing; and also John Kese junior the vicar, and John Loley Licentiate in arts, Rector of the schools, witnesses required to the aforesaid.

[11] Also on the same day, the high Mass completed in the Bacharach choir, before the prelibated our Lord Pastor, Lord Hermann Bere, and Henry Salhart the Chaplains, before me and the subscribed witnesses, there offered himself in the midst Peter Steynbecher, townsman of Mannebache, forty years old or thereabouts: and being asked by the Lord Pastor, and another most grievously swollen through the whole body. how he had been so most grievously swollen through the whole body, and now most clearly healed; he by his faith answered: That from a certain flask he had drunk, from which had gone forth a great multitude of venomous flies, commonly called worms of the ears invaders; and thence he had been swollen through the whole body with the greatest swelling, so that it was most known to all dwelling in Mannebach. But also there had been a certain dropsical woman, named Catharine Scolteszen, just recently through the intercession of Saint Wernher wholesomely freed. Which heard, when he had already almost burst from greatest pain, he vowed himself to Saint Wernher, every year with a fourth part of a pound of wax to visit and immediately he had been healed. Upon which the oft-mentioned Lord ordered by me to be made this public instrument: and decreed together with the others here written the Presbyters of his greater Church of Bacharach, of Lords Hermann Bere, Henry Salhart, and Stephen Meyster townsman of Bacharach to be sealed with their seals, present, Lord John Kese junior, John Schobenrauche Cellarer, John Auspurg of Meysenheym Chamberlain and John Tzingk Bell-ringer of the aforesaid Lord Pastor, witnesses introduced for these, and the deeds to the mandate of the Most Reverend in Christ Father and Lord, Lord Jordan de Ursinis Bishop of Albano, of the sacrosanct Roman Church Cardinal, and of the same supreme Penitentiary and Legate de latere through all Germany in the cause of the faith.

INSTRUMENT V.

[12] In the name of the Lord… on the first day of September in the dowry house of the Parish church of Bacharach… personally and of his own motion appeared a man of great discretion, Gerhard of Neumagen, by his Baptism recognizing, that when next, for the sake of his merchandise, at Pinguia of the Mainz diocese he wished to enter a ship, Wounded in the shin he is cured: in the shin of his left knee he had received an incurable wound, because of a vehement fall upon a certain nail; and so going down by the ship, seeking the parts of his nation, he passed by Bacharach: and at length by certain of those sitting with him he was admonished, that he should make a vow to Blessed Wernher with a certain gift of wax to the praise of God, that by the intercession of Blessed Wernher he might be healed. But he in good faith deeming this not vain, soon made the vow; to Neumagen farther, whence he was born, for thirty miles in the ship he descended, and was immediately healed. Not much later he came with his oblation about to complete his vow, paid it; and praising God's omnipotence set forth the event in the presence of me the public and of the subscribed witnesses, namely of the honorable men Lord Hermann Bere, Hermann Corbache the Chaplains, Arnold Korner the Vicar, Master John Luley Rector of the schools, John Schoberauche Cellarer, John Meysenheymere Chamberlain of Lord Pastor of the Parish church of Bacharach.

[13] Also in the year of the Pontificate of the same, the fifth Indiction, on the eighth day of the month of October, in the middle of the courtyard of the dowry house of Bacharach personally established, the honest man John Reuber, of Gauwelscheym of the Mainz diocese, together with his wife, mother, brother and sister of the same, brought forward in public a certain his boy of three years or so, whom they asserted to have lost, nor to know the trace of his whereabouts: whence they made a vow to Saint Wernher for the finding of the boy, that at least he not be harmed by beasts, or carried off by malevolent ones. a little boy lost in marshy places is found- The loss however having been prolonged for a natural day and more, on the second day the little boy himself, fixed in a marshy and reedy place, they found sound and unharmed: yet the presumption was that an adult man would be devoured by wild beasts and animals sooner than a tender boy would be preserved from harm for twenty-six hours. This confession was made in the presence of Lords Hermann Corbache the Chaplain, John Kelnherz the Vicar, Henry Richehere, John Auspurg, John Scobenrauche familiars of the Lord Pastor of the Bacharach church, Clerics of the Mainz, Trier, and Bamberg dioceses. Also on the same day, in the same courtyard of the dowry, at the hour of Vespers, appeared John Hun, of Ockenheym, of the sacred Mainz diocese, an incurable leg is healed. and recognized that he had had an incurable leg infected with a deadly infection, so that all hope of medicine had departed for three years: at length he vowed a vow to Saint Wernher, and received full healing. This confession under the faith of Christianity he made in the place as above, where also present were the venerable and circumspect man Lord Winand of Stega Doctor of Decrees, Pastor of the Bacharach Parish church; and also the noble military man Gerhard Knebel of Katzenelenbogen, Altmann Bettendorffer Councillor of Bacharach, and John of Laudenburg Notary of the Bacharach Toll-house: at whose instance, and also of the principal expounder, the same Lord Winand the Pastor ordered this instrument thence to be made, and with the seal of the greater church of Bacharach together with his own seal, of Altmann Bettendorffer and of John the Notary of the Toll-house aforesaid to be strengthened. And I Thomas Cube as above.

INSTRUMENT VI.

[14] In the name of the Lord, Amen. In the year of the Lord 1427, In the year 1427 the fifth Indiction, on the fourth day of the month of April at Bacharach, near the tomb of Saint Wernher, a blind man is illumined, at the hour of Prime or thereabouts… John Furster of Altzeya, fifty years old and more, recognized and by his faith said, that it was known to all of his city, that he had been blind for eight next years; and a vow having been sent forth, by the intercession of Blessed Wernher, he had recently been illumined: and he saw inclusively up to the present. This confession was made in the presence of Hermann the Advocate, John Selig, Henry Cloysze, John Moyr, Peter Mauweler, Nicholas Mauweler, Swaven Henne, and Junge Henne townsmen of Bacharach, and many other men of both sexes. Also on the same day and hour and place John of Bilchin brought forth his wife Ursula, whom by his faith he asserted, long to have been frenetic; and by the intercession of Blessed Wernher, a frenetic woman is restored to a sound mind, a vow being sent forth, was restored to complete health. Done in the presence of Lords Hermann Bere Jacob Mantel Presbyters, John Prume, Henry Cloysze, and many others called to the aforesaid. Upon which the present public instrument was drawn up, together with the seals of the Chaplains, Jacob Mantel the Presbyter, John Prume, Hermann the Advocate, and John Seliche the townsmen of Bacharach strengthened. And I John Kese as above.

INSTRUMENT VII.

[15] In the name of the Lord… on the ninth day of the month of June, at the hour of Masses or thereabouts… the honest woman Hebel Stercken, of Ludenrait, of the Trier diocese, near the tomb of Saint Wernher at Bacharach, she sixty years old and more, leading personally by the hand her niece, A girl dead from a horse's kick revives: named Agnes; and by her Christianity, recognizing set forth; that in this last month elapsed, she the expounder giving hay with her own horse, in one day, the aforesaid niece of five years or a little less, without the grandmother knowing, with a small piece of wood struck the horse on its hind feet: whence the horse kicking with its hind feet struck the girl to death, markedly in the breast; whence she, the child lying lamentably wrapped in a mantle and truly dead, cold, called the neighbors: and having taken counsel, and poured forth prayers, the same child with oblations to Saint Wernher she vowed. The girl immediately revived, called Agnes: and she presented her to Blessed Wernher, and today lives well. This confession was made in the presence of honorable men Lord Jacob Mantel, John Provisoris, Vicars of Bacharach; Hermann Mannebache Advocate there, John Prume Notary of the Bacharach Toll-house, Engelman Lotze Scultetus, John Busze Sheriff, and Master John Monetarius, and many other witnesses called and required for these.

[16] Also on the same day and place, at the ninth hour or thereabouts, Frantze Sutor of Mainz, erysipelas is cured: fifty years old, with a similar oath of his faith professed; that this year before the feast of Palms he had been kindled with the fire of hell, that is of Blessed Anthony: and pouring forth tears to God, through the intercession of Blessed Wernher, he had been most quickly healed. This profession was made in the presence of John Provisoris Presbyter and Vicar of Bacharach, John Selig, Lippen Henne, Auwen Henne, Falkensteyn, and many other witnesses required for these. Also at the same hour established in the same place, a gouty man is healed: John son of John Smet, of Mainz, eighteen years old, and spontaneously confessed having been examined by his faith of Christianity, that he had been paralytic or gouty, entirely deprived of the use of his feet; and by the prayers of Blessed Wernher he had been freed, present witnesses already above. Also at the same hour, Wernher Rabender, many are freed from hostile incursion. of Heydensheym, forty years old and more; similarly under his faith recognized, that this year hostile robbers having been gathered from his village, and they coming to the village for its burning; and the expounder's and other rustics neighboring him for their capture; he with others, prayers being poured to God, through the intercession of Blessed Wernher, to whom they had sent forth the vow of visiting, suffered no evil from the enemies; present witnesses as above this recognition was made, and with the seals of the witnesses here signed strengthened, namely, of Jacob Mantel, John Provisoris, Hermann Mannebache, John Prume, and John Seliche. And I John Kese as above.

INSTRUMENT VIII.

[a7] In the name of the Lord… on the third day of September … at the hour of Vespers or thereabouts, in the cemetery of the church of Bacharach, in the presence of a multitude of Clergy and people and of the subscribed witnesses, personally established Albert of Straubingen, a layman, of the Regensburg diocese, familiar of John Heydensdorffer, Chamberlain of the Most Reverend in Christ Father and Lord, Lord Conrad Archbishop of Mainz, not drawn by guile nor compelled by force; but most freely and spontaneously, no one impelling him, Submerged in the Rhine under the faith of Christianity and the salvation of his soul setting forth recognized, and said; how he a few days ago, by chance from a ship at Gernscheym, had fallen into the abyss of the Rhine, and there, according to the assertion of those then present for half an hour more, had been surrounded by the waves: that more than dead, and lifeless, at length he had been drawn out, and brought to the fire, had no life: at length the Toll-keeper there vowed him with a pound of wax to Saint Wernher; he is restored to life: he also the expounder with the vow made had immediately escaped the whirlpool of the waters, and been restored to pristine health. Whence to the Omnipotent God, the Blessed Virgin, and Saint Wernher rendering due thanksgivings, he had come with his vow, and humbly paid it; beseeching that so great a miracle, so publicly done, should be added to the other miracles. Whence the venerable and circumspect man Winand of Stega… then together with the subscribed witnesses present, commanded me the public Notary subscribed, that upon these things I draw up a public instrument of the things done as above in the presence of honorable men Lord Hermann Ber Pastor in Dolghescheym, Lord Henry Salhart Vicar in Lumberschem, Chaplains, Altmann Bettendorffer Chamberlain of the Lord Duke, John Nynt, Eberhard Hebestryt, Jacob Aurifabri, and several other witnesses asked and required.

[18] Also in the same year, as above, on the vigil of Francis established Styna of Leydeneck near Kestel, brought forth a youth, her own son, as she said, fifteen years old, named Nicholas, who although simple and rustic, as also his mother, yet by his Baptism recognized, that in the past week, namely on the fourth feria, a blind man is illumined, being in the field for working with horses, a certain air flying to his eyes rendered him blind, until the third feria of the present week. And then the same Styna, with her husband called Korbers Henne, vowed their son with a quarter of a pound of wax to Saint Wernher: and on the same night the boy clearly received his sight; and on that day the mother with her son paid the vow. These things were recognized in the presence of the prelibated Lord Pastor, and honorable Lords Henry of Luternbache Chaplain, and John Besyher Vicars of the Church of Bacharach, Master John a Muntzmeyster, John Selich b Wardinus, and others of both sexes, called and required. For the greater firmness of whom the aforesaid Lord Pastor ordered by me to be made this instrument, and the seal of the Greater Church of Bacharach, and of the Chaplains of the same church, of the Noble man Altmann Bettendorffer, of Lord John Besyher, of Master John Muntzmeyster, and of John Selich to be attached. And I John Auspurg of Meysenheym Cleric of Mainz, as above.

ANNOTATIONS.

INSTRUMENT IX.

[19] In the name of the Lord, Amen. In the year of the Lord 1428, the sixth Indiction, on the first day of the month of February, at the hour of Prime or thereabouts, In the year 1428 a dead boy is raised near the tomb at Bacharach … Reyntze Ritter, and Catharine his wife, of Nedernberg, of the Trier diocese, presented their son, and by the faith mutually sworn said, that he had been dead for the space of three hours; and a vow being sent forth by them, by the intercession of Saint Wernher, the boy revived. Done in the presence of Lord John Provisoris Presbyter, Peter Dyme junior, and Nicholas Mauweler, and many other men of both sexes. Also in the same year on the feast of Saint Luke, Hermann of Wyszely, of the Trier diocese, carter of the venerable Lord Winand Pastor of Bacharach, under faith recognized, that his Lord in the Paschal week of the present year had been called to the Official of Confluence; and on the sixth feria after Easter they had entered upon the road of return to home, and the expounder himself had been sitting on his Lord's white horse: and when they had come near a certain a vortex of a great abyss of the Rhine, below the Toll-house of Saint Goar; the horse, another is freed from the peril of submersion. stupefied by a certain wooden trunk, with its rider precipitately cast itself into the abyss, and the vortex of the water led him around in the most violent river, now below, now above. And when there was no hope of life, he collected himself, and vowed to Saint Wernher: and after the fourth submersion and great turning around, by the intercession of Blessed Wernher and by the grace of the Omnipotent, he was freed. He said his Lord, with his Chamberlain John Hackenberg, had been present as horsemen, and had seen: he too the expounder, all the garments with which he had been clothed, with his sword and greaves, carried to Saint Wernher's; and for the praise of God and his deliverance there left them. The aforesaid Lord Winand the Pastor, and John Hachenberg also recognized that they had seen all these things and had been present; but of the emission of the vow they said they had no information; but stupefied they called upon God and the Blessed Virgin for the deliverance of him placed in the greatest peril. For the testimony of which Lord Winand ordered the greater seal of the church and his own to be appended to the present: and for the stronger faith of others, with the seal of Lord John Provisoris, here inscribed to be strengthened. And I John Kese of Bacharach as above

ANNOTATIONS.

INSTRUMENT X.

[20] In the name of the Lord… on the second day of the month of April… at the hour of Vespers or thereabouts, Getza Gehers of Weschoffen, near Worms, presented her son, named Matthias, of one year and more, sound and elegant; whom she asserted, conjured by the Crucified, A boy dead for three days revives. yesterday for three whole days had been dead, and she herself had cried out so much, that the greater bell in Westoffen had been rung: and all the people being gathered, she had called out with all faith humbly to Saint Wernher, that he would give back to her the infant alive: promising herself not to eat, until she should present the infant with a living oblation to Saint Wernher. Which being repeated more often, the boy revived; and she with the boy took up the journey, and fulfilled the vow with the infant. This recognition was made at the request of Lord Winand, present Lord Theodric of Gouda, Master in Arts, and Rector of the schools of Bacharach, John Carnificis, companions in divine things of the church of Bacharach; John Dunner, John Kese, and Henry Doirenkemher, Presbyters altarists of the same church; John and Stephen Bruning, townsmen of Bacharach, witnesses called and required to the aforesaid. Also on the twelfth day of the month of April, Rucker of Lymburg with Ele Linwedy his mother, of the Trier diocese, a blind man is illumined before the witnesses subscribed, said, that the same Rucker a twelve-year-old had been blind for a month; he vowed a vow to Saint Wernher and was healed. In the presence of Lord John Fudersack, John Dunner, and John Prume, townsmen.

[21] and another: Also on the thirteenth day of the month of May, Gorge Oswalt of Hilsbache, on the occasion of a certain miracle, under the faith of Baptism said, before the witnesses subscribed, that he had been blind for ten and eight weeks: he vowed a vow to Saint Wernher, and received his sight. In the presence of Lord John Dunner, Lord Henry Chaplain of the Lord Pastor, Henry Richere, Vicars of the same church. Also on the seventeenth day of the month of May Lord Dean, named John Buweman of Saulhem, of the church of Saint Paul of Worms diocese, from the plague contracted lame, he is healed: recognized and said before the witnesses subscribed, that he had had the pestilence, and had been made lame, so that he could not walk: he vowed a vow to Saint Wernher, and was healed. In the presence of Lord John Dunner, and Henry Mannebache, Vicars of the church of Bacharach; John Selig, John Pistoris laymen. Also on the twenty-seventh day of the month of October, John Botz of Lotstad, situated between Speyer and Lauda, expounded, that Lady Nesa of Meckenheym, widow of a knight, had a daughter, a virgin of fourteen years or so, called Nopurg, who had been possessed to such a degree, a possessed woman is freed, that she was breaking iron chains with which she was bound, and injuring men. At length by the counsel of a certain Presbyter of the Speyer diocese, the mother vowed her daughter to Saint Wernher, with three and a half pounds of wax: and the vow being sent forth, the virgin was freed; and the noble woman paying her vow, sent the expounder hither with the wax, which he really offered in the name of the aforesaid virgin: and she expounded these things to the Lords subscribed through her Baptism. This recognition was made at the table of Lord Pastor of Bacharach, in the presence of venerable men Lord Winand Pastor already touched, Master John Pastor in Hoffen-Margaretæ of the Cologne diocese, Henry Salhart Vicar in Lumberscheym, Theodric Trutzburg, Chaplains of the aforesaid Lord Pastor. Upon which the aforetouched Lord Pastor commanded an instrument to be made, and sealed as it seems. All these things were done in the dowry house of Bacharach… And I John Auspurg of Meysenheym etc. as above.

INSTRUMENT XI.

[22] In the name of the Lord… on the thirteenth day of the month of November, at the ninth hour or thereabouts, at Bacharach … John Pletze of Hernscheyn, near Worms, by his Christianity recognized, Immobile from pains of belly and nearby parts is healed. that for four weeks he had suffered pain of the belly and the genital region, so that he could not move himself: he vowed a vow to Saint Wernher with half a pound of wax, and immediately was freed: and in each year with a similar oblation he visited Saint Wernher. In testimony of which the aforesaid Lord Pastor ordered to be made this public instrument, and attached the greater seal of the church of Bacharach, and his own, in the presence of honorable and discreet men, Master John the Chaplain, Hermann of Gieszin, Jacob Mantel, John Kese junior the Presbyters, Master John of Louvain the scribe, Henry Richel the Vicars of Bacharach, witnesses worthy of faith called and asked to the aforesaid. And I John Kese as above.

[22] To these Notarial instruments, let there be added the attestation of a noble man, concerning a miracle done on himself, related in the Trier codex, near the end in these words: "I John Hoffman, of Heidelberg of the Worms diocese, under oath given to my natural Lord the Duke of the Bavarians, likewise an infected leg, recognize that for three and more months I had a leg around the shin infected. And hearing the fame of Saint Wernher I personally vowed myself to his burial with gifts: and immediately healed, on this subscribed day, I personally paid my vow at Bacharach and a longstanding languor, as I could. Nay to this my brother Peter Hoffman, of Heidelberg, for a long time languid in his whole body, the vow having been sent forth was healed; and firmly and as quickly as he will be able, will redeem the vow. In testimony of which I have supplicated the Lord Pastor of Bacharach, before his four domestic familiars, that he strengthen these letters with the seal of his church. Given at Bacharach in the year of the Lord 1429, on the Vigil of the Epiphany of the Lord."

BACHARACH PROCESS,

On the life, martyrdom and miracles of Blessed Wernher. From the Trier MS. Codex.

Wernher boy, slain at Wesel, deposited at Bacharach, on the Rhine in the diocese of Trier (St.)

BHL Number: 0000

FROM MSS.

CHAPTER I.

Introduction to the cause, and instruments for proving the prescription of the ancient cult.

[1] All the ancient monuments relating to the History of the passion or of the miracles of Saint Wernher and written, before Lord Winand Pastor of Bacharach took care to form a public and full process of the whole cause, The Monuments hitherto given, for they were in the process, we have produced thus far; with few exceptions that we have not thought to give whole, and these are the Lessons, Responsories, Hymns of Saint Wernher composed then for his various Office, when no one doubted of a soon-to-follow Canonization: but the procuring of this, because of the cause to be indicated below, being suspended to a longer time, those were never introduced into public use, nor received by the Church: and so we have considered it enough to taste them among the Annotations. There have also been produced various Presuls' authentic Indulgences, which also it seemed worth while not to propose extended at length, but it is enough, if what is historical in them be shown in the Notes to be given below. It now remains, that what in the Trier codex is principal, and for the occasion of which those earlier things are found described, be placed before the eyes. The Process, I say, of Bacharach, with which begins and in which ends the most beautiful book, with this Rubric, holding the place of a title and conceived in these words: "Of the reverential counsel, nay more truly of the command of the most reverend in Christ Father and Lord, a Lord Jordan de Ursinis, by divine providence Bishop of the Albani, of the sacrosanct Roman Church Cardinal, and of the same supreme Penitentiary; formed from the will of the Apostolic Legate not without mature mastication of the Reverend Fathers and Lords, two Bishops and Professors in sacred Theology; and also of four other venerable, although of diverse faculties, Doctors, of the household of the already written Lord Cardinal existing, and with the same at Bacharach for some time quiescent in the pastoral curia; for the reverence and also for the information of the Apostolic See and its supreme Pontiff, and of the most reverend in Christ Fathers and Lords Cardinals of the same, and also of the Most Reverend in Christ Father and Lord Archbishop of Trier, and of his Holy See; the things which are written below with most diligent and exact diligence, as it seems, with truth as companion, are gathered into one. Principally to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Christ-bearer ever Virgin, and to the honor of both Johns, and of all the elect of the heavenly curia, patrons of the Chapel of Blessed Wernher: and following also by the command of the illustrious Prince and Lord b Lord Ludwig Count Palatine of the Rhine, and of the Count Palatine Archdapifer of the sacrosanct Roman Empire and most illustrious Duke of Bavaria, chief zealot of Blessed Wernher and of the instruction of his most noble chapel. c

[2] under Pope Martin V To the Most Holy in Christ Father and Lord Lord Martin, by the providence of God Omnipotent of the sacrosanct Roman and universal Church supreme Pontiff; and to his Coworkers, the most reverend Fathers and Lords already touched of the inviolate Church most worthy Cardinals in the Lord; and also to the most venerable in the Mediator of God and men, Father and Lord D. Otto most illustrious Archbishop of Trier, with the kisses of hands offered and of the feet of the supreme Pontiff blessed; and Otto Archbishop of Trier. and to all and each in Christ Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, Prelates and Clerics, especially in universities whatsoever ruling, and having the grace of the Apostolic See, to the most illustrious Kings, most resplendent Dukes, Marquises, Counts, Nobles, Knights, Militaries, Officials of whatsoever kind, Communities, Cities, Citizens, townspeople and rustics, and the rest of Christ's faithful of both sexes, of whatever preeminence they may be, of state, sex, or condition; to attain in Christ and their own merits happily life without end to come, and to the present to be given indubitable faith. Namely that in the year from the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ 1428, the sixth Indiction, in the year 1428 September 26 of the Pontificate of the most holy in Christ Father and our Lord Lord Martin by divine providence Pope the fifth in his eleventh year, on Sunday, the twenty-sixth of the month of September, at the hour of Prime or thereabouts, in the plain of the enclosure of the greater chapel, commonly called Saint Wernher's, before the principal choir, in the presence of the circumspect man Lord Winand of Stega Doctor of Decrees Pastor of the people of Bacharach, and of me and the subscribed public Notaries, and of venerable witnesses, and a great multitude of men specially called for this, and by d a secular beadle cited to be present, personally established, men of great circumspection, the young Lord Henry Wolff of Spanheim, of military rank, Burggrave and Vice-Dominus of the territory of the people of Bacharach, of the glorious and most noble Prince and Lord Lord Ludwig Archdapifer of the Holy Roman Empire, Count Palatine of the Rhine, and Duke of the most powerful Bavarians; and also Lord John of Laudenburg, Notary of the Toll-house, also of the aforesaid most illustrious Prince; with mature declarations having been made with certain articulated points, positively surrounding the present matter; which points by written histories, by the faith of instruments, by public voice and fame labored to be fully proved; they brought forth in public various and diverse things there.

[3] in which process, to prove the martyrdom, First in an oratorical word, as also (as they say) so that it might become known to all those then present and to the neighboring public by fame, by the relation of our elders, by public miracles, by writings, by fortifications and by seals, openly, publicly and notarially they pleaded; how the venerable in Christ boy or youth, Saint Wernher, so called by all, held, and reputed; of old about the year of the Lord 1287, on the very day of the Supper having been communicated and fortified with the true body of Christ, by the perfidious Jews, whose sect and wickedness he was ignorant of, had been craftily drawn to one of their houses somehow; and there for three days suspended on a wooden statue, and at length cut with a knife, cruelly slain; and this in Upper Wesel of the Trier diocese, in this very place, where now is the hospital of the Holy Spirit: in whose Chapel and Choir his wooden statue, and this very knife of his cutting is venerated by Christ's faithful. And the same boy dear to God, by the perfidious Jews' concurring and practicing money, had been frustrated of his deliverance, at least temporal; although the maidservant of the Jews had then indicated the crime to the Scultetus of the people of Wesel. And the same blessed boy secretly by the Jews in a crafty manner above Bacharach, in a deserted place, the sanctity of Blessed Wernher, where now is the monastery of Saint Wilhelm, was hidden (as the fame of the elders publicly up to the present proclaims) under thorns and brambles, and at length wrapped in a sack and his own blood, shown by miraculous lights to Christ's worshippers, and again carried to the Bacharach judicial hall; and there again by lights to the Christian throngs, as a boy dear to God and a Martyr, was pointed out, and thence by solemn procession with the Clergy and people through a notable, wide, and pleasant ascent into the small and ancient chapel of Blessed Cunibert religiously was placed, not as Princes, Prelates, Nobles, citizens, or rustics are wont to be buried below the earth tumulated; but wrapped in wax, with a golden fillet, adorned with golden roses, as sign of his virginity, with a silken cushion full of violets, and the pruning-knife, instrument of his labor, in a small cedar box surrounded; within a strong oak tomb, well defended and barred and fortified with the strongest ironwork; was, in the manner of Saints and God's elect, most religiously enclosed for rest.

[4] And that he had since done very many great signs, so many and so great, and the public cult, that not only neighboring peoples, but also natives of very much distant places had visited their holy Boy, with very great gifts and monies; so that soon the old altar, consecrated in honor of SS. Cunibert and Andrew, being destroyed, and the greater part of that little chapel; a new altar, with a new building of that most precious chapel, in the sixth year after his passion, was erected, and in honor of the same SS. Cunibert and Andrew by a certain Hermann venerable Father and Bishop of the Samii was solemnly reconsecrated, and with various indulgences, both then of Lord Peter Archbishop of Mainz, and of very many of Trier and other twelve Archbishops, was enriched; and thence a new and great Chapel with three notable choirs, as today is seen, on most firm stone, with twenty long, wide, and triple-pillared and quadruple windows, with ample and high stones precious squared and cut, and brought from parts well remote, was with a sum of many florins, by the effort of Christ's faithful, fervently established; and where abounded the abundance of florins to be had, in much more superabounded the sum of offered florins and monies exceedingly great. And thence by the growing avarice of a certain Archbishop, then occupying the land of Bacharach in the name of pledge, the greatest sum of money was violently taken from the building, and with a worthy vengeance of that holy boy, nay rather of Omnipotent God and of his Mother, near Bacharach in the Rhine (where now the venerable image of the Blessed ever Mary Virgin, carved between the solemn doors of that Chapel, not without miracle terribly looks down) was with the robbers indignantly submerged. And thence the canonization of that holy boy, and the completion of so pleasing a building has been hindered up to our times; yet that the same Saint Wernher here and there and slowly at diverse times and years has done diverse miracles. And at length, to stop the mouths of those speaking ill, the holy boy himself, three years ago, to the light of the sun, by the reopening of the greater tomb, anew was exposed; not without testimony worthy of faith and by the command of the aforesaid Lord Prince Ludwig: and the recent uncovering of the body, and at length, when there came the most reverend in Christ Father and Lord Lord Jordan Bishop of Albano, Supreme Penitentiary of the Holy Roman Church and Legate de latere, with two Bishops, and six Doctors of diverse faculties, that most holy body was shown, flashing with recent and new and daily miracles. Moreover this Body was seen, by the same Lord Cardinal placed in a new and clean little tomb, which in the old oak tomb was to be replaced, and strengthened with locks and strong bars, as today this day teaches: and the holy miracles, which God through him did, he ordered to be written in public instruments.

[5] But that all and each of the aforesaid, or any of them, should not slip entirely from human memory through the mutability of men, various instruments exhibited: but be preserved unshaken for the rest in the hearts of men, that God might be glorified in this, that the Mother of God, both Johns, and all the Elect of God patrons of that Chapel, with their holy boy co-patron, might be worthily venerated, and the Roman and also Trier Church, and their Pastors be more easily to the worthy Canonization of this Saint by the testimonies, fame, writings, and monuments subscribed more clearly informed, and be inclined. First by the proof of the points inscribed below concerning the ancient deeds and their fame, they had produced three tablets, for the memory of all men around the venerable Epitaph of the same Saint Wernher suspended; of which one, more than a hundred years old, of large e text, contains the first ninety miracles of that Saint Wernher. Which tablet had a certain ancient copy agreeing with it in all respects, also of good textual letter, solemnly written: and because in the chest of Saint Wernher, among his other monuments it is reposited, appeared so ancient; and is a beautiful tablet, agreeing with the aforesaid in all respects, of textual letter and more recent. But the second was older than the first, containing the days of indulgences. The third appeared to be about fifty or sixty years old, in rhythm and in vernacular, covering the total martyrdom of the Saint himself. Second, principally they produced a very ancient f history, with antiphons, responsories of Canonical hours, not simple, nay rather quadruple or quintuple, with notes and various melodies. In the cover of which history from within, in very ancient textual letter, was contained the fact of the deed done and the cause of the martyrdom with the passion: and this letter was distinguished into Lessons. Next immediately after they produced letters of indulgences, one g of twelve Bishops, with transfixed consent of formerly h Bohemund Archbishop of Trier: another i of Peter Archbishop of Mainz and consent of the same letter of Lord Peter: and another of Lord k Baldwin Archbishop of Trier. Also a letter of Bishop l Hermann of Samii, reconsecrator of the altar of Saint Cunibert after the passion of Saint Wernher.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Points brought forward for legitimate proof.

[6] I return to the context of the Process already tasted, interrupted by the more prolix Annotations, which is such: Likewise they produced another a history, not so ancient, extracted from the previous letters and histories; and concerning his new reposition. It is assumed to be proved, And to prove that history, they immediately produced many and diverse b instruments, here successively inscribed. Of which points c and of all the others already touched the tenor, word for word, follows successively, and is such:

[7] that the rustic boy Wernher, First, that about the year of the Lord 1273 or thereabouts, Saint Wernher, of rustic Christian stock a faithful of Christ, and reborn in Christ, from the village of Wammeraydt, a simple boy and nourishing himself with rustic labors, had been a native: so was and is public voice and fame, by our elders, letters and histories handed down to us d. Likewise that the same boy, holy and simple in his life, had done some miracles (namely by the sign of the Cross a spring e from dry earth drawing forth) or in the wonderful endurance of his passion. elicited a fountain by a miracle. And that that passion had been celebrated after the year of the Lord 1287, three days f before Easter. Likewise that the same Holy boy Wernher, on the very day of the Supper, was by the Priest g communicated with the body of Christ: and after having received Communion, and on the same day by the perfidious Jews in Wesel, of the Trier diocese, craftily, for doing some work, into their house was lured.

[8] Likewise, that the same venerable boy-youth had been by the same Jews hung on a h statue downward, by the Jews hung for three days, that the Jews might have the true body of Christ i. Which effort being frustrated, they gave themselves entirely to martyring the mystical body itself, and to taking away his life and blood. Likewise that the same perfidious Jews held that holy boy three days hanging on the wooden statue, his blood through every part of the body thirstily cutting, today witnesses the statue in the place of his passion, and the knife, sudary, with abundant blood extracted, and waxen linen, bloodied, at Bacharach in the place of his burial. Likewise that in the middle time of his passion, through the Christian maidservant k of the Jews, the holy boy's passion had been revealed, and brought to Eberhard, then Scultetus of Wesel. Likewise that the same Eberhard l the Scultetus came to the place of the contest, and was bowed to by Saint Wernher with a voice of exultation for his liberation, he was abandoned by the Scultetus, namely temporal. Likewise that the same Scultetus Eberhard, having taken the reward of iniquity from the Jews, denied aid to the boy in torments, and that the holy boy answered him denying: "If you will not help me, may the merciful God, and his beloved Mother, help me." Likewise that concerning all and each of the aforesaid there is public voice, and fame of history, and diverse songs.

[9] and the body of the slain cast among brambles, Likewise that the boy being left to the will of the Jews by the Scultetus, and at length killed; he had been by the Jews in whatever way to the place where now the cloister m at Windesbach is, between brambles and thorns hidden, because of the approach of day; and there by miraculous lights he had been revealed. Likewise that from then he had been carried to the house of judgment of the people of Bacharach, and by similar lights again as a Saint revealed. Likewise that thence he had been to the ancient and small chapel of Saint Cunibert, but revealed by heavenly light in the hill of the mountain near the Parish situated, venerably brought. Likewise that there he was placed in waxen cloth and wrapped in his own blood, carried to the chapel of Saint Cunibert, having on his head a golden wreath or fillet as sign of his n virginity, beneath a cushion of silk full of violets, and on his head a veil o of silk multiplied, as signs of his innocence and sanctity; and also beneath him the pruning-knife, instrument of his former labor. And that he had been placed in the manner of the Saints above the earth for the palm; in a most solid oak tomb, with a very small cedar box, venerably enclosed; and sealed with the strongest locks, and in the manner of Saints enclosed in a cedar tomb, and this glorious tomb had been fortified round about with the safest iron work with a treasury placed upon the oak tomb: and this is by the experience of the now living witnesses true, public and manifest.

[10] and in a new chapel, Likewise that after the aforesaid first deposition, immediately the small chapel of Saint Cunibert, with the ancient altar, for the greater part had been destroyed: and a new chapel, nay a most precious church, with cut and squared stones, with a new altar and three notable and costly choirs, had been erected: and this is to the eye truly notorious. Likewise that that altar, situated in the right choir, yet less principal of that church, placed in the right choir, precisely before the glorious tomb of the Saint, had been by a certain Hermann Bishop, for the time Suffragan of the Archbishop of Trier, the altar consecrated, newly reconsecrated in honor of the first Patrons: and that this is clear to one looking today at the letter p of the same Bishop. Likewise that to that chapel by many Archbishops and Bishops at that time certain Indulgences had been given, and honored with indulgences, and the same for the completion of that new chapel by various Archbishops of Trier, their own Indulgences also being added, confirmed q. Likewise that from then Saint Wernher, within the space of a short time, where he shines with miracles. had done ninety wondrous miracles, building up the Church of God.

[11] Likewise that after these things the new chapel had been up to the roof of the two choirs with great expense fabricated: as today is clearly to the eye openly and notoriously. Likewise that notwithstanding this, That the robbers of the sacred money were submerged in the Rhine, the money of alms had superabounded in greatest abundance: whence a certain Archbishop r of Trier, led by whatever spirit, that money by force took: and the money with the robbers, near Bacharach, in the abyss of the Rhine was submerged. Likewise that at the time of that submersion, s the stone image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, nobly carved in the porch of that church, the statue of the Mother of God turned after them. which at that time was lovingly looking at her little Son in her arms, as the Patroness of that principal chapel; grievously offended, by turning from the image of Christ, vindictively looked after the robbers; not as a Virgin placable, but as an angry woman and terrible judge: and that this still appears to each one to the eye today looking at that image. and thus was hindered the Canonization: Likewise that this withdrawal of monies had hindered the just Canonization of that Saint t, and also the completion of that church, through 120 years and more up to our times. Likewise that after these things here and there that Saint had done various and diverse miracles. And that this is clear by many iron manacles and fetters u, and among other miracles, waxen images x and likenesses and pugilists' y defenses, and other marks, from ancient times up to the present in the chapel itself variously suspended. Likewise that twenty years ago the same Saint Wernher in a certain religious z Presbyter, of life and morals praiseworthy, contracted in both hands, the Presbyter's hands having been healed when contracted: had done a most evident miracle, today most known to many men by sight and presence.

[12] Likewise that not yet four years having elapsed, that holy body entire, the hand placed in the golden ministry excepted, at length that the Body was publicly shown, as has been said, in the same place placed, the tomb being reopened of the locks and bars, had been shown to the sight of men; and with the marks of his sanctity, virginity, and martyrdom had been found openly, publicly and notoriously. Likewise that that body, by the command of the Most Reverend Father and Lord, Lord Jordan Bishop of the Albani, placed in a new tomb, Supreme Penitentiary of the sacrosanct Roman Church, Cardinal and Legate de latere, had been placed in a new and clean little tomb, into the original oak place venerably, with very many witnesses worthy of faith added, had been most safely re-enclosed. Likewise that that body, from seventy years above and below, visited by 30 thousand pilgrims, up to more than three hundred thousand, nay innumerable men of inhabitants of diverse kingdoms and of foreign peoples, has been venerably visited, and with gifts manifoldly honored. Likewise that from these alms that aa church is now faithfully being built, and all the money without any deduction of any man, even of the proper Pastor, is being converted into the structure of that church, and the temple built. for the praise of God, of his beloved Mother, of both Johns, and of all the elect of that church's Patrons, and to the honor of Blessed Wernher, and this is clear notoriously, by witnesses and sight, publicly and manifestly. Likewise that among these things that Saint today shines and daily flashes with incomparably greater and more numerous and more manifold miracles, than he had done at the time of his passion; and that concerning these each and all is public voice, fame and truth, as is clear from the diverse and various instruments drawn up thereupon.

ANNOTATIONS.

p Of this letter we made mention in the previous chapter at letter l.

q Concerning each there we have already treated.

r Unless Witnesses 32, 111, 119, 162 named Baldwin, we would not believe that such avarice could creep upon so praised a Prelate, and founder of many monasteries, as is described in his Acts and in Sammarthanus. It was rather the fault of ministers, abusing the name of their Lord; who however for repairing the damage had confirmed the Indulgences, extending helping hands to the fabric. Witness 13 places it in doubt whether under him, or under his predecessor, the crime was committed; Diether of Nassau was this one, nearer to such suspicion, because, thrust upon the people of Trier by the Pope, with them he carried out perpetual lawsuits; and also entangled himself in war against the people of Confluence, and at length was summoned to plead his cause at Rome and died, without doubt needing much money.

s For seeing this Witnesses variously appeal, especially 5, 10, 45, 119, 135, 171, 185.

t The same and others bring forward this cause of the hindered work of both.

u Of these made mention especially Witness 1 and 12.

x Concerning the great quantity of wax, brought to the tomb, testify by name, Witness 76, 141 and 185.

y Of these no one speaks, nor does conjecture fully reach what they are.

z Very many eyewitnesses came to this miracle namely 1, 2, 15, 41, 111, 115, 127, 131, 155, 156, 159, 170, 181, 196, 199.

aa How faithfully alms have been expended on this matter is testified to especially by the Clerics of Bacharach: and the church itself even now is called the temple of Saint Wernher, as is clear from the delineation of the town of Bacharach, in the Topography of the Palatinate of the Rhine, in the year 1645 published in German by Matthias Merian.

CHAPTER III.

Entry into the reception of Witnesses, and the full response of the first Witness.

[13] All the monuments, above produced or named; making for the proof of the said points, prolixly described in the Trier Codex; Witnesses to be heard there comes the reception of Witnesses with their oaths: who were Bacharach or Stega inhabitants, in the year 1428 heard, on the 28th day of September and thereafter, up to ninety- six: then eleven of Cube, in the very Cube town heard, on October 4 of the same year. Admitted also and examined were the principal Matrons and widows of the Bacharach parish, to the number of 38; then notable virgins, devout, serving God in chastity, 34. After the examination of these follows the process concerning the Clergy, and the response of the Clergy through 24 witnesses: whom follows the Prior of Windesbach with his five Religious: and at length the Pastor of Bacharach himself, in all 211 witnesses: who how they were brought and examined each one, the following Notarial deduction and the response of the first witness will make clear. But there were seven Notaries who received the responses, and added their subscription at the end and notarial signs to the concluding Process; and they continue the same process, begun with the first two Chapters, and interrupted with the production of so many letters and writings and lecture and explanation, in this manner. Likewise on the same day hour and place as above; namely on September 25, at the hour of Prime or thereabouts, in the plain of the enclosure of the greater chapel;

[14] The aforesaid letters before the then assembled Clergy and the cited people, Notaries are deputed, all and each with tablets, at the request of the aforesaid Burggrave and Notary (nay rather by the mandatory order of the aforementioned illustrious Prince Lord Duke) through the above-touched venerable Lord Winand, Pastor and Doctor, word for word having been read through for the Clergy, and vulgarized for the people; the aforesaid young Lord Henry of Spanheim, Burggrave, taking the promissory oath from the then principal Councillors, Sheriffs and the people subscribed, that through us the public Notaries, diligently, according to the points subscribed, examined, they should say the bare, true and sincere truth, whatever should be certain to them or could be certain, from knowledge, sight or hearing, concerning the fame and truth and other circumstances surrounding this deed, having no one before their eyes but God and their own salvation.

[15] He also enjoined us, all the Notaries subscribed, that the same witnesses approved, not excommunicated, nor entangled in any infamous crime, with all diligence, who are ordered to hear also matrons and virgins as pertained to our office, we should not put off examining, Also, that having taken the oaths of the principal matrons and widows of the Bacharach Parish, in a similar manner we should do: thirdly that the notable virgins, devout and serving God in chastity and sworn, concerning the aforesaid points what they felt, we should receive: then the Clergy and monks: and at length the Clerics of the Bacharach Church similarly sworn, with the Prior and brothers of the Cloister at Windsbach of the Order of Saint Wilhelm, also subject to the Pastor of Bacharach, in the presence of the same Pastor, we should subject to diligent examination: and finally the Pastor himself, by the oath given to the Lord Duke, whose Councillor he is, more diligently concerning the aforesaid (as one principally concerned) of notorious fame and other circumstances we should ask: and finally their own opinion themselves to declare, lastly also what we Notaries felt in these matters, we should put in our inscriptions, regarding no one, both we and others, in each of the aforesaid, except only God, the salvation of souls and the sincerity of the Catholic faith. All which things, as has been said, maturely and distinctly done, and also inquiry made through the same young Lord Henry, or interrogation of the Clerics of the Bacharach Church, as is placed below at the beginning before the examination of the first witness among the Clerics, namely John Fudersack, from that place there was withdrawal.

[16] The first testifies September 28 in the year 1428 First, in the year already written, on Tuesday, the twenty-eighth of the same month, Stephen Prume, senior Advocate, Sheriff of the holy Synod of Bacharach, eighty years old or thereabouts, sworn, received, admitted and examined, asked, said, that it was known to him only, through all his memory and of his parents, for 100 years and above and below, for 100 years the Saint has been so called, and cultivated, that Saint Wernher had been so called, and as such venerated, not only by the inhabitants, but by the most distant peoples, namely by Hungarians and Slavs. Also, through all the times of his life, he saw him indifferently cultivated by foreigners and inhabitants: a chapel constructed nay that this new Chapel was fabricated in his name; and the ancient altar of the Chapel of Saint Cunibert, although it had been destroyed, and with the new work reconsecrated in honor of the same holy Cunibert; yet he says, if Blessed Wernher did not there rest, this structure would never have been thought of. Nay by himself almost innumerable, before 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and more notably years, he saw diverse peoples arriving, and suppliantly invoking his name.

[17] Nay not only from his new Reposition, at which with others he was present; he is believed to be a Martyr, but, as has been said, before and also after, most firmly also he believes, that he is a holy Martyr of Christ, as his Legend sings: which truth, every doubt set aside, he believes to be surrounded with the brightness of light. For he said, that from his parents, and a Virgin Clerics and laymen, he had heard, that that holy boy had been a virgin, and with the marks of virginity in his own blood wrapped, and in that precious mausoleum, on all sides ironed, above the earth (so that the space of a foot is between the earth and the tomb) manifestly to the eye, placed. And from the outcome of the matter this has been found most true, that he was present, with the Notaries, witnesses and other better men of the town of Bacharach, sent by the Lord Duke Ludwig, Elector of the Empire; and therefore the body had remained incorrupt: and with the Pastor and Clerics there present, together with them, he had found the Saint wrapped in a bloody linen cloth, with a hair-ornament, which in these parts is a most true sign of virginity, nor is placed upon anyone, unless she be known to be a virgin, and otherwise so he had been found, that there is no ambiguity about his sanctity; but only this he believes to be of interest, that (as his vulgar and most famous Legend nourishes) after his martyrdom one Archbishop of Trier, that the treasure was taken away by theft and perished seeing so great a building being fabricated in his name, led by avarice, despoiled it of very great money, which also below Bacharach had been submerged: whence perhaps his Canonization had been hindered, as he has heard.

[18] miracles done: That he has also very often read, that he had done innumerable most glorious miracles, as is clear in the tablets written down thereupon, most ancient, combined in good textual letter; in many ironworks, fetters and manacles, to him before many times solemnly by captives, freed by his benefit, suppliantly offered. Further he said, that twenty years ago, a certain very religious Presbyter of Bacharach, called Lord John Hunczerich, very ardent for reading Masses, had had his hands withered in both, so that his celebration had been entirely frustrated: and he said, that that Presbyter, a contracted Presbyter led by him to the tomb and healed; weeping and wailing with great sobbing and a multitude of men of Bacharach had ascended to the blessed Boy's tomb. Nay he says, that he himself and a certain formerly Lord Henry Bere Presbyter, led the same Presbyter Lord John Hunczerich between their arms to the tomb, and by common prayer of that Priest and of the people being made, soon he was restored to pristine health: publicly there vowing himself further to be a Chaplain of Saint Wernher, and him every day to visit: and that from then the same Presbyter, for twenty years and more, every day, as he firmly thinks, has ascended to Saint Wernher, and has celebrated Masses in his chapel once, twice, thrice in the week. And asked whence he knew this, he says, that most often he has seen this; since he himself is accustomed every day personally to invoke and visit the holy Boy himself.

[19] it is wicked to doubt concerning the miracles done: To these things he said, that he has seen many other more miracles, of which many are instrumented: where he himself also is required as a witness: he refers himself to those, and to his history, which he believes indubitable; and for wicked he would believe or alienation of mind, if anyone thought the contrary, at least knowing the deed done as he does: and he believes so also by all the parishioners of the Bacharach church it is firmly believed. Nay further asked about the sanctity, he said that he is of such great sanctity, that even most distant peoples, Hungarians, Slavs, etc. draw from his fountain placed near his chapel, which they carry with them, and returned say, that the same fountain in its first taste and sweetness so remains.

[20] he is venerated as a Saint also by leading men: The witness himself was asked (since he was a lettered person, and knew that the Saint was not solemnly canonized by the church) why he cultivated him as a Saint; he answered that he was not wiser, higher, or even similar to the Cardinals, Bishops, Doctors in Theology and Canon Law, in laws and medicine, Dukes, Counts and Countesses, Nobles and Presbyters, of all of whose kind by his eye he has seen very many, honoring Saint Wernher himself suppliantly with gifts and devout prayers venerably, with gold and silver, jewels of wax both great and weighty, even 130 and more and less, images. Asked, who those were; he says, that a certain Cardinal Legate de Latere, with six Doctors, of whom two were Bishops. Asked whence he knew these things, he answered, that at Saint Wernher's in the pastoral house for three weeks they had rested, and had given Indulgences to the structure , and had ordered the holy Boy himself cleanly to be placed; yet so that he should not be moved from the place: Archbishop also of Besançon had been one after those: and that the Count Palatine, with his son and wife, also more frequently honor the Saint, with magnificent gifts in wax, and a great sum of Florins: also the Count of Katzenelnbogen with his wife reverently visit him each year: likewise the Countess of Nassau, today residing at Wiesbaden; and that similar things are wont to be done by Prelates Doctors and peoples: wherefore he has no doubt, that Saint Wernher is most worthy of canonization: and that whatever he here has set forth, the greater part of the Town of Bacharach believes to be true.

[21] and explains his own condition: Asked about his own life; he denies being excommunicated, says he is rich enough in fiefs and patrimonial goods; he denies being corrupted; hopes for no gift, but eternal life; he says every fiction, neither any, nor anything to be; but simply true, as he has deposed: he knows letters: he is a synodal Sheriff: and for many years was Advocate of the city; and master of the fabric of the Parish church of Bacharach.

CHAPTER V.

Depositions of the sworn witnesses concerning the stock, martyrdom, revelation and chapel of Saint Wernher.

[22] The Witnesses affirm, But to describe the whole and individual responses of the Witnesses would be a labor not only long but also fastidious; and to readers little agreeable: therefore the reason which in the processes for Saint Francis of Paula and others similar we have begun to keep, here also we shall maintain; and in the witnesses' own words we shall relate all things, which before we have found less fully and less clearly said. And first as regards the origin of his birth, Witness LXXXIII Peter Scholteisz of Mannebach, born at Wammerayt, fifty years old, said that he had heard from his grandmother, who also had known Saint Wernher, that he had been born on one side from the village called Constanza, near Wammerayt, on another line from Wammerayt, of the Trier diocese. Witness XLVII John Crebisz, townsman of Bacharach 65 years old, added that he and Saint Wernher, born of rustic stock, had had common kinsmen. Witness CXIX Catharine Stumps eighty years old, on account of old age, lest she die received, answered, that it was certain to her, as her husband's mother had related to her, who was called Byel Cruls, that the mother of Saint Wernher had had so great consanguinity with the townsmen of Stega, of rustic stock that the witness herself speaking and the kinsmen of their sons divided the utensils; and thence had come one bronze pot to John Smalcz at Stega, which was of the mother of Saint Wernher. And John Smalcz himself 53 years old, Witness LXXIX, by affinity, as is known, connected with Saint Wernher, said he had the said pot... descended down to him through ancestors; but he declared that Saint Wernher had been a Christian from Christians; whose posterity still survives well Christian: and this Elizabeth wife of John Busz Synodal Sheriff and of the Judgment of Bacharach, an honest matron, 60 years old or so, Witness CXL, affirmed, with her rustic kindred testifying and kinsmen still surviving: some of whom perhaps descended from the very brother of the Saint, concerning whom Witness X John Carst of Mannebach, senior 80 years old and more, says that his grandmother, widowed for forty years, of 100 years, at her death said to him, that several times to the uterine brother of Blessed Wernher she had given alms after the passion of Saint Wernher. And John Provisoris, 33 years old, Witness CLXXXIII, said that Saint Wernher has descendants and kinsmen many, namely John Becker and Smalcz townsmen of Stega, and others at Wammerayt and at Wesel. Finally Witness I John Bintreiff cooper, townsman of Bacharach, says that he in the house of the niece of Saint Wernher, in the village of Wammerayt, whence he was born, had once been, and had conversed with her.

[23] Gutta Schieszers, widow of formerly John Gerckens, that he had lived by rustic labor, 65 years old or thereabouts, Witness CXVII, confesses that she had heard from a certain John called Schuring, townsman of Stega, that he had seen the blessed boy Wernher from the countryside, and as such a simple rustic boy, carrying manure to the vineyards of a certain Stega noble, called Breytscheit senior, and that he had been a virtuous boy. This however is observed; after the holy boy from Wammerayt with his parents expelled came into Urber near Wesel, as deposes Catherine Hunczerichi, a virgin of withdrawn life 51 years old and more, having been most well-mannered Witness CLV. But Witness IX Henry Calart of Stega, 70 years old, asked whether he held him as a Saint and what was the cause of his knowledge, answered, that his wife Hilla had confessed, that she had served a certain woman, who had served before another woman, saying that she had been a servant of the house, in which the boy himself also had stayed: and that to all addressing him so cheerful he showed himself, and in all works and affairs so swift and agile showed himself, and with all virtues so adorned, of morals composed, in acts so virtuous, that to her similar she thought she had never seen. Further concerning the one miracle of the holy boy before his passion there are four Witnesses, among whom Nesa Strytsacks, Witness CXXVI, a widow 70 years old or so, and that he had produced a fountain by a miracle, said to herself it was certain, that she had heard truly, and that she believes, that today this is more fully known to a certain townsman of Mannebach, that the blessed boy Wernher himself, before his passion, came to certain rustics, desiring bread: and that those rustic shepherds, through lack of a fountain, had complained to him the holy boy, in turn of their intolerable thirst: and that then the boy, pitying the misery of both parties, with the sign of the Cross fortified the dry and too-dry earth, and thence a very flowing fountain flowed out. Asked where the fountain is, she says, that on the road between Bacharach and Saint Wendelin, as she heard from many: and today many drink of that fountain, and it is called the fountain of Saint Wernher.

[24] That the miracles of the living ought not to be sought, Further, John Provisoris aforesaid, one of the Bacharach Clergy, interrogated about the miracles done by the Saint in life; fittingly answered, that he believes not in Martyrs "pandi," that is, "made manifest" (for thus often in this codex is used the word "passus," as a participle from the verb "pando") not so strictly is inquiry to be made about miracles in life, as in Confessors, as in Felix and Adauctus and the four Crowned. Likewise that his endurance in the passion he believes a great miracle, instilled in him by God for the strengthening of the Holy Church. But the series of this passion many, as they had heard, narrated: of whom Elizabeth Weselers 70 years old, Witness CXX, in so manifest a Martyr, says she herself had heard from a certain townsman of Stega, called Orit Keyser, who was the grandfather of Lord Winand, who is now Pastor of Bacharach; and from many others who lived at the time of the Martyrdom of Saint Wernher. Also Getza, widow of formerly John Mals, 80 years old, sound of mind and body, Witness CXXVII, recounted the history of his martyrdom. Asked whence she knew it, she says from her grandfather called Sifrid Amborn, who at the time of that Saint lived, saw, heard. Similarly Nesa, daughter of John Morelene senior, 56 years old and more, a virgin, in her father's house, although bereft of her mother, leading a virginal life, Witness CLXIX, to the questions asked her answered, that from her ancestors, namely her father, who also from his very old parents had heard, she had learned. Nay also John Otto, townsman in Cube and Sheriff, 80 years old and more, Witness XCVIII; John Sneplok, 70 years old and more, Sheriff of Cube, Witness XCIX; John Lottringer, Sheriff of Cube, 70 years old, Witness C; John Fridages, Sheriff of Cube, 60 years old or more, Witness CI, when they were interrogated, each of these four most elegantly knew the cause of the martyrdom and the martyrdom with all its circumstances, and they recited each separately, as is contained in the old and more ancient diverse histories of Blessed Wernher.

[25] And the testimonies of most of these concerning the series of the passion are so in general noted: and most known to all: many others speaking as of a most known thing, with few words touched upon the binding to the statue, the information of the maidservant, the perfidy of the Scultetus, the carrying away of the slain body, its hiding and revelation; which from the history itself will be better sought. Here I note that Sophia Witness CLXVIII, about whom more below n. 56, said that the vision of candles, shining at Windspach at the body, first appeared to the watchmen in the castle of Furstenberg: and that James Smidt 56 years old, originating from Bacharach and there also dwelling, Witness XXIII declares, how at Wesel the house of the Jew was changed into the hospital of the Holy Spirit; and immediately preceding Witness XXII Nicholas Arnoldi of Wesel, 80 years old and more, dwelling in Bacharach, whence the house of the Jews at Wesel converted into a Hospital, says that he had been for more than twenty years in the hospital of that house, where that Saint was martyred; and that the statue stands there in the choir enclosed with boards because by infinite visitors with small pieces it has been much diminished: who also for the sake of the statue and of Saint Wernher, there everywhere offered great moneys, and venerated the statue on account of the Saint. And these two points about the veneration of the Wesel house and statue, many others confirmed by their suffrage; and namely Witnesses XX, XXIX,

XXXII, XXXIX, XLI, XLII, L, CXII, CLXII and

CCV. But specifically Witness XIII John Brunigh, townsman of Bacharach, 52 years old, answered, that especially by Hungarians and Slavs is the statue honored, and the beam to which the boy was bound is held in honor. which by foreigners by small pieces in the middle had been much diminished; and lest it be totally carried away, it had been enclosed among boards. Further John Crebisz above-mentioned, when he had narrated how the Scultetus brought to the boy's agony by the maidservant had answered the one asking help, "I cannot help you, since money for you has been given me notably plentiful"; soon adds, that that same Scultetus Eberhard from then vanished within a short time, so that his bones and flesh were never known. Asked however about the cause of knowledge, he said, that he had so heard from his mother and grandmother, who lived in this time.

[26] John Biene, 100 years old or so, first being asked about his old age whence he is so ancient, said from this, that he remembers Bacharach around the mountains to have been little walled: also he remembers the time of war between the people of Trier and the Ducals, in which he had been … of which time the length is written in the great precious Breviary of the Bacharach church. By the name of Ducals are understood the subjects of the Elector Palatine Duke of Bavaria: but in the Trier Annals of Brower I find nothing, whence the time of this war could be defined, which therefore I leave to those studious of Trier affairs better to investigate, and proceed to the deposition of this so aged Witness XVIII, who, as is added, is a Butcher in his right mind, and still today working at Stega, and further interrogated, says that the history of Saint Wernher and his martyrdom he heard from his parents, a dispute having arisen about the body. and that two most illustrious miracles happened immediately after the death: one namely, when Saint Wernher had been by the Jews from the Wesel Scultetus Eberhard somewhat bought; that is, abandoned to their will, and the Jews themselves wished to lead him secretly to Mainz; with daylight betraying them, he had been placed among brambles above Bacharach on this side of the Rhine, where now is the cloister of Blessed William, then recently erected after the death of Saint Wernher; and when he should be brought to Bacharach, there had been contention between the people of Bacharach and the people of Wesel about the body: and it was freely exposed on the Rhine. Which although flows from Bacharach to Wesel, that it applied across the Rhine to Bacharach, when it came to Bacharach, freely descending by the force of the water; against the course of the water it placed itself on the Bacharach shore: and he says this was most famous, at the time of his youth, known to all.

[27] The same narrating Witness XLIII Nicholas Smidt of Stega 65 years old and notably more, says he had heard from a certain Wernher, called Vaszbender, townsman of Bacharach then a centenarian, as he said, that he had seen Saint Wernher in this manner at Wesel to have suffered, etc. and at length when a controversy arose between the people of Wesel and Bacharach, he was placed in the middle of the great river Rhine, that where he would he might descend: and when from opposite he came to Bacharach, notwithstanding the immense force of the Rhine; he transversely to the Bacharach shore went. Likewise that he had seen him placed in the house of judgment, and with candles manifest. Nay he said Wernher had said, and there honored with various signs, that with his own eyes he had seen doves around the funeral feeding on grains; and that the body itself not without many miracles in the chapel of Saint Cunibert was deposited; when more often it was tried to place him elsewhere in vain. And this last is more fully by the aforementioned Henry Callarti, Witness IX, confirmed: who added to the other things said by him, that, when in the house of judgment placed the body stood, he was intending to place it in another place than that in which now it rests: but yet by God's will and mystery disposing this, neither in the church or hospital, nor in other places did it wish to remain: and into whatever place the building of the mausoleum was brought, always on the mountain, on which it now rests, in the morning it was found. Concerning candles or lights, by which "passum," that is, "manifested," the sacred body had been, both here and several other Witnesses assert, specially to be heard is Lisa Seckelers, a virgin 75 years old, who says she had heard from her own father, that her grandfather one morning among brambles found Saint Wernher, by the Jews slain: and that his sanctity first by candles, both there and in the Sheriff's hall of Bacharach was revealed, especially by three virgins or beguines, before morning visiting the church. Namely at Bacharach: for at Windspach the candles were first seen by the watchmen of Furstenberg, as said above.

[28] Another miracle narrated by the above-mentioned Witness XVIII I defer to a more convenient place; and to have indicated his mother, and for it I substitute another, more immediately following, which Margaret relates, Witness CXVIII, wife of Ewald the merchant, fifty years old and more; adding to other things said by her; that she had truly heard, that at the time when the slain one had been brought to Bacharach to judgment, two women bereft of their sons came, and asked that he indicate which was his mother: who then had extended his dead hand to his mother. For the celebrity of the new Martyr had induced that other one, to say she was his mother, at whose aspect she could hope for copious aids in bearing her poverty; contending against her, who truly was the mother. Perhaps also this was the cause why the right hand had been separate from the body, adorned with silver, and placed above the box, as is said in the History of the invention in n. 19 , and below in n. 64.

[29] From then so great a multitude and evidence of miracles began to overflow, soon from the copious offerings a temple began to be built, such throngs of pilgrims from everywhere to run together, such copious offerings to be gathered (which most of the Witnesses severally exaggerate, to confirm that Wernher, as a Saint, had always and most fundamentally been held) that that distinguished basilica could be built: which why it was not altogether completed, is expressly imputed by many to the Bishop, who tried to claim for himself the money collected there. Brower refers this to the year 1338, in which the people of Wesel and Boppard were to be chastised by Baldwin the Bishop, because by private authority taking up arms they had set about to kill Jews, and seize their goods: and he suspects that the people of Bacharach are not to be separated from this cause, who had placed the treasure taken away in this tumult from the Hebrews in the temple of Blessed Wernher, in the temple of Blessed Wernher, out of hatred of the people and by the memory of the ancient deed ; and thence by Baldwin's order it had been justly taken away as punishment to the treasury. But such a suspicion lacks foundation; rather for the Bishop's excuse I would say, that he himself, compassionating the Jews and too credulous of their complaints, was indeed persuaded that Jewish spoils had been offered to Blessed Wernher; but God by the submersion of the plundering ship had made clear how false was such persuasion. The aforementioned Catherine Stumps, octogenarian, asserted that there were three vessels filled with diverse coins.

[30] But that because of this crime that stone image of the Blessed Virgin, which in the doorway of that most noble chapel is magisterially constructed, the robbers, the statue of the B. V. fiercely turned after them and before had a direct aspect before itself or delectably the infant was accustomed to look upon: as an angry woman begrudging her prey, and avenging the injury done to her, as the principal Patroness; had turned an angry and terrible countenance, turned away from her own Boy, toward the robbers into the Rhine, so formidably, that immediately all the robbers were submerged with the spoil; and still the image is seen to stand with an angry and averted face; openly and notoriously to appear, submerged, said Irmetrudis, Witness CLXXI, daughter of Rupen, formerly Sheriff of Bacharach of Diepach, 55 years old, a virgin, dwelling in her own house: and the same many witnesses more briefly affirmed. Witness CLXII says, below Bacharach immediately the ship submerged; CLII near Bacharach. Most significantly Witness XLV, John Trutman of Stega, 54 years old, asserts, that the countenance of the image had turned itself in that way which was between the tower of the bank and the tower of the robbers, where now the wall is from tower to tower: and there was submerged the money with all in the ship. Moreover Witness XLII, John Herden, 75 years old and more, with only one pilgrim saved: from Hensch-huysen within the limits of the church of Bacharach… that a poor pilgrim, wishing to sail for the sake of God, unaware of the wickedness, only escaped: and asked about the cause of his knowledge, he says, that he had so heard from his parents and ancestors, not for fame only, but for the truest truth, which the same Witness IX above-cited affirms.

[31] all other money Further, as detestable as was the cupidity of those seizing the sacred money, so praiseworthy was the abstinence of the Pastor and others, taking nothing from it for their own right, but expending all on the fabric, as various expressly confirm, and most significantly Witness XCVI, Altmann Bettendorff, of military rank, of the Regensburg diocese, one of the twelve military Councillors of the Bacharach council, and superior Chamberlain of the illustrious Lord Duke Ludwig Count Palatine of the Rhine; who says, that he saw more than twenty thousand men personally visiting Blessed Wernher, to be expended only on the fabric, and venerating with gifts and moneys: which all are without deduction converted, for the honor of God and of faith into the fabric of that church, and for the augmentation of divine worship: nor even the present Pastor takes anything of his canonical portion. Asked whence he knows, he says that he together with two others is Master of the fabric, but has nothing thence of present aid, but hopes for the future. Similarly his companion in office Witness III John Prume, son of the first Witness; forty years old, Co-notary of the Lord Duke in the Bacharach Toll-house, rich enough;… asked how much emolument thence he has, he says, absolutely nothing; but he has labor, and hopes for life eternal. Nay he said that all the money is converted to the structure, nor does the Pastor receive a single obol of it. not even the Pastor receiving his canonical portion: Nay Witness CCI Adam, Rector of the scholars of Bacharach Master in arts, affirms, that the erection of the structure is without doubt a notable damage to his Lord Pastor and his own: because (as the immediately following Witness Theoderic of Isennach adds, Chaplain in the dowry of the Bacharach church, 35 years old or thereabouts) the poor, who might perhaps aid him in confessions and offerings, for the sake of the Indulgences give to the structure, and Witness CCIX Heinrich Salhart, senior Chaplain of the Lord Pastor of Bacharach, agrees with the preceding Witnesses saying, that he well feels the damage in his purse.

[32] Of wax, offered in memory of the benefits received, so great an abundance flowed, more than 5000 waxen offerings offered within two years, that John Donner, Witness CLXXXV, Altarist of Stega in the chapel of Saint Anne within the limits of the Bacharach church, and custodian together with his mother and family of the chapel of Saint Wernher, says, that such waxen signs made more than five thousand pieces in the past biennium etc.: of which four thousand or so, in the past month, in the house of the speaking Witness; nay more truly of Saint Wernher, were resolved into ten masses: of which one through three men not without labor had to be suspended in the chapel: over and above this, with a thousand pieces dismissed around the epitaph as a sign of the miracles of that Saint; notwithstanding that a continual waxen candle, over the body of the Saint, to the honor of God shines. Which the same affirming Hebela, mother of the aforesaid Lord John of Cube, custodian with son and family by the Lord Duke deputed, to guard the epitaph of that Saint Wernher, 70 years old and notably more, Witness CXLI, said, those images thus resolved within the space of one month, that is in the past month, to ten or eleven hundredweights of pounds had extended, to the weight of more than 1000 pounds, of which each piece portended a singular miracle. But also Witness LXXVI, John Lipp, townsman of Bacharach 40 years old and more, sustaining himself by labor and craft, with the same John and Hebela cooperating in the casting of the wax, by the command of the Lord Duke Ludwig and of the Pastor of Bacharach, attests, that one of the ten great masses aforementioned he himself as a third could scarcely suspend; and he had cast besides these from those and other pieces of diverse human parts, of men and brute animals, hanging around the Saint's mausoleum several other masses. As to the fetters and manacles Witness XII John Selig, and a great force of manacles and fetters. forty years old or thereabouts, a lettered man, and who in Bacharach has dwelt more than twenty years, having his wife there, and master of the buildings of the Archbishop of Cologne in Bacharach, said he had heard from Lord Henry Beren Presbyter, that all the ironwork of the windows of the two choirs of that chapel, which are many and very great, are made from the fetters and manacles of iron, offered to that Saint by those freed from chains, by the help of God and of him.

CHAPTER V.

Depositions of the same concerning the cult of Saint Wernher.

[33] They testify that men of every kind from all sides come to visit the tomb, The multitude of those coming to the tomb of the Saint the Witnesses very many exaggerated: and most significantly Witness IV, Emmerich of Waldek, son of formerly Emmerich of military rank, 70 years old, said, that through all the time of his remembrance, before and after up to the present, Wernher had been honored as a Saint, and is honored by inhabitants and foreigners, nobles and commoners; and that he saw Prelates, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Doctors, Princes, Counts and Nobles coming to that Saint from diverse kingdoms, such as England, Germany, Tuscany, Lombardy, Hungary, Slavonia and Burgundy. But Witness CXI Gutta Schelarts 70 years old, wife of John Brungins, townsman of Bacharach, says, and to draw water from the neighboring fountain that she saw foreign peoples even with bent knees going around the chapel: nay the fountain near the chapel, as holy and freeing from infirmities, by the Hungarians and Slavs often into flasks to be taken, which also is not subject to stench. More expressly Witness XII John Selig aforecited testifies, that when the fountain, that is the water of that fountain, had been carried to their most remote places, after seven years it happened that they returned: and that that fountain he heard to be declared most clear and without any infection most sweet. Asked whence he knows this, he says, the fountain stands near the chapel, and those men from seven years to seven years are accustomed to the Blessed Virgin of Aachen to go over, and leave gifts in the treasury.

[34] I pass to another kind of honor, customarily accorded to the sacred sepulcher through public procession of the Clergy and people, of which, besides others, Witness LXXII, Bertolf called Becker, townsman of Bacharach, 60 years old or thereabouts, says he venerates that Saint Wernher, that the Body of Christ is carried there in procession, with all the inhabitants of his parish, as a Saint; and venerates him as such with gifts and honors and prayers; and thus he always has done, with his wife and daughters and all his neighbors, following at the time the Body of Christ, up to the altar of Saint Cunibert near his tomb: and that this he has done up to the present, and hopes to do until the end of his life, that that Saint Wernher intercede for her, because he is powerful on account of his distinguished merits, which in very many miracles appear and to the eye can be seen. Catharine Scheiden, widow of Bacharach 70 years old, devout and very honest, Witness CXXX affirmed, that the Body of Christ, forty years ago and even fifty, processionally near the tomb had been carried. But Elizabeth, wife of Peter Humerecht, townswoman in Bacharach 60 years old or less, says this to be done on certain festivities of the year.

[35] But it is concerning this custom very notable, what Witness CLXIII said; which once when omitted Catherine of Ebren, of the Trier diocese, virgin and Recluse in the Recluse of Blessed Mary the Virgin in Heymbach of the Bacharach church; who now had been there for thirteen years, in abstinence and chastity with the other fellow-virgins leading a common life, with hands with the others enclosed seeking their living, using sometimes also with the others the piety of alms, without dishonest public mendicity, 30 years old and a little more. She said however to herself it was certain, that twenty years ago particularly, in winter, on account of too intense cold, the body of Christ was not carried to Saint Wernher contrary to the ancient custom, which is kept today: the stones of the pavement were moved, and for this (as at the time she heard from many) there was great confusion and commotion of many squared stones around the venerable tomb of that Saint, which then was and is above the earth beyond the space of a foot erected, surrounded by ironwork all round, and probably on every side of it, below, above and on the sides… Asked about the cause of her knowledge, she says that before her conversion she had dwelt with the Cellarer of the Lord Duke in Bacharach, and had seen the commotion of the stones.

[36] A similar thing had also happened ten years ago: for Nesa Strytzacks, and the same thing had occurred often otherwise, septuagenarian, Witness CCXXVI already cited, 33 years ago, when the preceding was not yet born, saw flat stones around the tomb suddenly turned into disorder, or (as Catherine Stumps octogenarian Witness CXIX speaks) that the stones all around from flat turned into crags, or (as Metza Mulners says, virgin 60 years old, townswoman of Bacharach, Witness CLXXII) that from flat they had raised themselves into rough 30 years ago. But Ela Stuben, sexagenarian, Witness CLXII, the squared stones to have turned into great inequality, not once, but often she saw: and asked what she esteems to be figured by this; she says at the time men and she commonly said, that this prodigy signified the canonization. Of the same opinion the preceding Witness confesses himself to have been, and also Witness CXVIII. Simply however the commotion of stones seen by her witnesses the following Witness; and Odilia, wife of Oirkins 70 years old, Witness CXXI; around the Nativity of the Lord, and Elizabeth Goldgins, equally septuagenarian, Witness CXXIII. The same commotion miraculously done 30 years ago, the tomb and chapel being at rest, around the nativity of the Lord, witnesses by ocular faith John Tzing bellringer of the Bacharach church 56 years old, cleric married, who had been bell-ringer of the same church for 36 years, Witness CXCIX and adds, that all day the bell was rung for the evidence of the miracle.

[37] Otherwise, 33 years ago, Elizabeth Lauwers, virgin 55 years old, Witness CLII, was present and with her own eyes saw, that the Saint himself on the day of the Circumcision with the whole tomb, above the earth openly and elevated placed, had moved, and on the day of the circumcision also the tomb and there a most sweet odor had emanated. Similarly Witness LV Bartholomew Rosenbecher 60 years old, townsman of Bacharach, dwelling near the Pastor, before others says, at the time of his adolescence once around the feast of the Circumcision there was the greatest movement around the tomb of that Saint, so that the squared stones of the chapel very unequally raised themselves, although the chapel itself with the glorious tomb is placed on a hill of most firm rock. And Witness CLVIII Agnes Kempen, virgin of withdrawn life, 50 years old, deposed, that she had heard from three persons, guarding the burial of that Saint ten and twenty years ago there as bell-ringers, that often with great ecstasy and stupefaction there had been a commotion of that burial placed high above the earth; and a notable dissolution into inequality of the squared stones, before plainly placed; so that as if precipitously they had placed themselves. Similarly, Elizabeth daughter of formerly John Gercken, virgin 30 years old, Witness CXLIX, with a fragrance of most sweet odor: says she had often heard from a certain honest man called Heinz Gorgel, custodian of that chapel and of the Saint that the Saint himself had often exultingly moved himself, and there had been the greatest sweetness of odor, and that this portended nothing else but his canonization. To this assented Ella, wife of John Rudissemmers, 70 years old, Witness CXV: who asked where she had seen it, says that as a scholar on the mountain of Saint Wernher, together with other virgins, she had learned letters. But concerning only the odor often perceived, Witness CLXII Ela Struben of Mannebach, 60 years old and notably more, magistra of the Recluse in Heymbach in the boundaries of the limits of the Bacharach church, herself a virgin leading a virginal holy life with the other virgins to God, asked about the singular reasons (because the Witness herself with the other virgins bound to her are believed to be of most holy life) for which she holds Wernher as a Saint, simply and sincerely answered, that 27 years ago and more, she herself had suppliantly adored the holy boy, and that immediately from the tomb so most sweet and desirable an odor had come forth, beyond what can be expressed.

[38] The canonization which either that motion of stones or of the tomb, placed otherwise on most solid rock (as the aforementioned Witness CXV asserts), is judged to have portended, yet not to be venerated by the Clergy in the ecclesiastical Office, was that magnificent elevation of the body above described; and made by the authority of the Legate Apostolic: for beyond that it has not gone. Therefore Tielmann Rudiger, Plebanus at Mannebach, 35 years old, obedientiary of the Pastor of Bacharach; Witness CXCV, when he had said that Saint Wernher by all his ancestors and other innumerable men, great and small, of all conditions and states, through all the times of his memory, was and has been cultivated and venerated as a Martyr of Christ, openly, publicly and notoriously; and that he himself and his fellow-Vicars and the Plebani, subject to the Pastor of Bacharach, were able to venerate the same Saint to the utmost; he excused however that they do not do this in public offices; out of reverence for the Apostolic See, from which they knew this faculty was to be obtained. But Witness CLXXXIII, namely John Provisoris above-cited, asked, whether he had venerated Wernher as a Saint, says, that although his ancestors and all the other peoples, whom he has known, venerate him as such; yet he and the other Presbyters do not venerate him manifestly: and this he believes proceeds from the fact, that the Pastors of Bacharach have always been lettered men, courtiers, and mostly Doctors, who did not do this: therefore he and his fellows do not do it.

[39] although the same holds his sanctity as certain, Equally well the same Witness does not doubt, that he is a Saint, Martyr of Christ and Virgin; since he himself had been present at the opening of his tomb, and had seen him wrapped in his own blood and linen, with the hair-ornament of his virginity, with a silken cushion full of violets, and a silken sudary on his head bloodied: and he believes it hard if anything is opposed to his sanctity, which in heaven he has, and from earth for 140 years up to the present he has possessed. Nay he believes that around Bacharach round about there are twenty thousand Saints canonized, who have not done so many illustrious miracles: as is clear in many of the ten thousand Virgins, and innumerable Martyrs at Trier, who on one day at Bacharach are celebrated, and yet do not shine with such most evident miracles, as this Saint Wernher. Similarly Peter Tedefusz, 80 years old or thereabouts, Vicar at Diepach and subject of the Pastor of Bacharach, Witness CLXXXVIII, said that it would be dangerous in the Church of God to wish to question the sanctity of so distinguished a miracle-worker, whom they had already cultivated for 140 years, and he thinks it cannot be disputed without scandal, every sex, condition and age of men and states, publicly and notoriously, this being known both to the Roman church and the Trier: especially since the signs of his sanctity are most true, by voice, fame, knowledge, scriptures and letter, with infinite signs and miracles following. But John Trutman, Witness CLXXXIX, 40 years old, placed under the obedience of the Pastor of Bacharach, agrees with the preceding fellow-witness, adding, "Would that the Lord Apostolic and the other Cardinals had seen him the Saint thus honored, as the supreme Penitentiary three years ago saw; and had perfectly seen, what we daily see; with worthy honors they would canonize that Saint."

[40] That his Office is had written down: It is clear meanwhile, what I noted elsewhere, that the Clergy of Bacharach abstained in divine Offices from making public commemoration of the Saint; and indeed that the Histories, related in this Process, were never used in church: but had only been maturely composed and described also with musical notation, that they might be at hand whenever the Apostolic See should approve. They were nonetheless carried through the hands of men: for Witness XCVII, and first among the Cube people, Heinrich Cellarer of the Lord Duke, 70 years old (who although he was an alien, native of a place distant enough, had been however in these parts for the space of 40 years and more sub-cantor of Bacharach) said, that with the responsories, which Saint Wernher has as his own very many, poor scholars even today acquire bread; namely by either writing them out or singing them street by street.

[41] The popular and most received veneration of this Saint also declared Witness LXXXI, William Knebel of Katzenelenbogen, that in his honor many are called Wernhers; son of formerly Otto Knebel Knight, Burggrave in the castle of Stega of the Ducal principal called Stailberg… adding to other arguments, that his grandfather formerly Lord Wernher Knebel, in honor of that Saint had received this name Wernher: and that in a similar manner he had had an uncle, Canon of the Mainz church, for the glory of this Wernher, called Wernher: and had had also a cousin called Wernher, and his own brother, now deceased, for the honor of the most blessed Wernher and protection so named. Similar things asserted Elizabeth, Witness CXLIII wife of the aforesaid William Knebel; and immediately preceding her another Elizabeth, formerly wife of Young Lord Wernher Knebel, likewise in the castle of Stailberg the Burggrave, a noble widow, devout to God; this one however added that it is no wonder that that Saint Wernher is venerated, shining with so many and so great miracles; that newborns are offered to him since Our Lord Jesus Christ in him himself was slain mystically, and he for Christ. Since therefore the first infants and nurslings are venerated, why not this one, who had not only the sensibility of his martyrdom but also the intelligence and greatest endurance. Finally Gutta Schieszers says she had brought to Saint Wernher all her offspring, immediately after coming from childbirth, with candles and offerings. Nor is there any doubt that the piety of very many women in childbirth was the same, although it is not confirmed by more testimonies in this process.

[42] the aforesaid place of burial is held in veneration, Finally to confirm the sanctity of Blessed Wernher, or rather to declare the most certain opinion of the faithful about it, many Witnesses add, that up to the present has been and had been honored, with infinite gifts, ceremonies and prayers, not only in the place of burial, but also of the statue of the passion at Wesel, and of the hiding among brambles in the castle of Windspach, as depose Witness XIII aforenamed, and Witness XXIX John Kesel of Stega, Advocate of Bacharach, and among the twelve citizen Councillors of the same town one of the same council, which is composed of 24 persons from 12 nobles and 12 citizens. Also Wernher Keyser, townsman of Bregens 50 years old, Witness XXXII; also the place of the passion at Wesel; John Ulenhuser of Stega, 80 years old or so, Witness XXXIX; Peter Hobrost 65 years old, Witness XLI, and others. But speaking by name of his Wesel John Mews of Wesel, Cleric of the Trier Diocese, public Notary by Imperial authority, fourth among those who witnessed the Trier Codex (which we use) to agree with two other exemplars, then equally described; "In the chapel of the Holy Spirit," he says, "near us vaulted above and below, where the statue of his passion is venerably placed at the right of the altar, is a certain precious and most ancient tablet, outwardly and inwardly for the instruction of the unlettered sumptuously painted, on which placed upon the altar among the other Saints, two and two placed not without the shining of gold, near to Saint Martin, surrounded with a diadem, sociably is placed with the others: and below is the place of his horrible passion in the great cellar."

[43] and the place of hiding at Windspach. Of the Windspach foundation, before all deserves to be heard Witness CCV, namely Philip Bruning, Prior of the cloister or house at Windspach, otherwise the house of Saint Wernher, 46 years old, who sworn, received, admitted and examined, the points having been read to him and understood, says, that it is in no way to be doubted, that Blessed Wernher was and today is a Saint, and as such by the Christian people reputed. Asked the reason, he answered, that it is notorious that he has within one mile three most known oratories, one at Wesel, which is of the Holy Spirit, in which is venerated the statue of his passion; second, which is the principal, in the place of his burial at Bacharach; and third in the place of his cloister, where he performs the office of Prior. Asked whence he knows this: he answered simply: "If Saint Wernher, in a sack wrapped with his own blood, had not been there hidden among thorns and brambles, never would that cloister have been erected there: which cloister today through all the lower province is called the house of Saint Wernher." And about this he has read and seen a very old book, in the house of his Order, where there is a monastery of the Order of St. William in the town of Duren of the Cologne diocese, contained.

[44] Asked about a further cause, he answered, that their house at Windspach, which, as has been said, founded and endowed by the Palatine Princes, is titled to Saint Wernher, took its origin from the martyrdom of Saint Wernher, as has already been touched: and in the second year after his martyrdom, namely in the year 1288, on the 13th day before the Kalends of March, a certain then illustrious Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria, temporal Lord of that place, had given them the briar-covered area, that they might erect there a cloister. And he added that from then in the year of the Lord 1292, on the 8th day before the Kalends of October, a certain other Lord, Ludwig Count etc. second made a donation to that house: and a certain Rudolf son of this Ludwig, in the year of the Lord 1293, on the Nones of December, made a third donation: and from then certain Lords, Rudolf and Ludwig, sons of Ludwig Count Palatine etc, a fourth donation made of the parish church at Snarbach, and this in the year of the Lord 1305, on the third feria, in the Paschal week. Likewise all these donations even formerly Pope Nicholas the fourth so made, by Apostolic authority confirmed, as all these things by the Papal bull and greater seals of those Princes, together with letters drawn up thereupon, which in his examination he produced in public, clearly appear to the eye.

[45] Asked why he swore, since he is Religious; and subject to the Pastor of Bacharach. he answered, that the venerable Pastor of Bacharach for the time, from ancient and prescribed custom, and ancient ordination of the Princes founders of that cloister and of the Provincials of the Order, has jurisdiction over them, so that they are bound to answer to those complaining before him. Hence it came about that here he answered and thus it came to him and his that they are bound to obey the Pastor of Bacharach, within whose limits they subsist, saving however the substantials of their profession: and these things were ordained, lest they be compelled to answer to laymen in forbidden secular judgment, but rather before the Pastor of the place. Thence he concluded, from which Saint Wernher had been martyred in the year 1287, that it is clear that these things had happened afterwards: and thus he had heard also from his father, a very ancient man, who was Sheriff of both seats of Bacharach; and he believes that his grandfather had remembered the martyrdom of Saint Wernher.

CHAPTER VI.

Depositions of the Witnesses concerning the miracles of Saint Wernher.

[46] They affirm his sanctity most attested by miracles, These things being so, John Donner Altarist of Stega of Saint Anne Witness CLXXXV, wonders, that a Saint so very wonderful, and surpassing many Martyrs by miracles, in number, efficacy and manifold excellence, has not long been canonized: and says that he saw many most evident miracles done, consigned to public instruments; and others so manifold great and small, experienced and believed, that waxen signs of them they made more than 5000 pieces in the past biennium. Nay so great is the evidence of his sanctity, says Witness XXIV, John Weseler of Stega, 70 years old or so, that he firmly believes, if anyone stubbornly said the contrary, he should be burned as a heretic: that it cannot be brought into question without grave scandal. and Witness L. John Bintreiff, concerning his sanctity as about a doubt asked, on account of his most distinguished signs, was so horrified, that he said: "He who would not believe that Wernher himself is a Saint, ought to be burned or submerged." Moreover James Ortrud, one of the 12 Councillors among the citizens of the council of Bacharach, Witness LXXIV, says it would be scandalous, if anyone should detract from the so longstanding possession of sanctity of Saint Wernher, which possession limits all memory of men. Whence there is no doubt, he says, that a great error would be made, if against God and his holy Martyr anything sinister were attempted, who for so longest a time, 140 years and more, by natives and foreigners and most distant peoples has been venerated, and is venerated today, as a holy Martyr, openly, publicly and notoriously, with the concurrence of so various signs and miracles. And Witness LXXVIII Hora Swab of Stega, says that this would be nothing else than to introduce Hussitism into a new sect, against paternal law, in scandal of the republic. Similar things said John Stump, townsman of Stega, Witness LXXX and others.

[47] The principal miracles we have exhibited consigned to public instruments: that the health restored to the contracted Presbyter is most known; but concerning what, as most known to the common people, is only found expressed in the points proposed for examination, namely concerning health given to a certain Presbyter, contracted in both hands, twenty years ago, we named very many Witnesses in the Annotations at letter Z; and that his name had been John Hunczerich says, before all others expressing the same name, Witness 1, who himself carried him between his arms together with another Priest to the tomb, and afterwards long saw him well. To whom attesting after other eyewitnesses Gutta Schelarts, Witness CXI elsewhere already mentioned, says that she had seen the contracted hands placed upon the tomb of Saint Wernher, and the Presbyter himself sobbing and praying and much people weeping together, and herself had wept; and Catharine Hunczerichs, probably a kinswoman of the one who had been cured, Witness CLV, says it is simply true and so done, that she personally had served him for 22 years. Also Witness XV Peter Dym, 52 years old Sheriff of both seats of Bacharach, said that he knows this miracle to be most true, because he had seen it, and his uncle was the said Presbyter.

[48] Now moreover other particular miracles, or graces imputed to the merits of Saint Wernher, it is pleasing consequently to weave together, life preserved when already anointed, from the mouth of the witnesses themselves, in the order in which they have been deposed and written. Witness VII John Busz, Sheriff of the Synod and of the secular judgment of Bacharach, 50 years old…, admiratively answered, why should he not be venerated as a Saint, when the witness himself in the past year, having been anointed, placed in the extreme article of life, when all despaired of his life, nor could any remedy of medicine be applied; and he could scarcely give himself to so much, that he might promise himself with gifts with tongue and heart to Saint Wernher: which when he did, immediately and at once he was better, and presented himself to Saint Wernher, and offered him for his structure so much of his better wine, that today, if he still had it, twenty florins would pay for it: adding, what fiction could be here, when he himself did these things in sincerity of faith, and from the help principally of Christ, of his mother and of that Saint, he received immediate healing from the point of death: of which matter also witnesses are all his neighbors and at the time present to him.

[49] Witness IX Heinrich Calart, asked whether he held Wernher as a Saint and what was the cause of his knowledge, cured pains of the teeth, answered from a sign done in this very week in him; for when he had felt himself burdened with a vehement pain of the teeth, he vowed a vow to Saint Wernher; brought an offering of wax formed in the manner of a tooth; and immediately was healed. Witness XI John Kremer, long-blinded eyes, townsman of Bacharach, 50 years old or so, relates that he by chance had come to the house of a certain townsman of Bacharach, in which he found a certain visitor from the Mainz diocese; who explained that he had been a smith, and for eighteen years had been blind in both eyes: until at the instigation and admonition of his Plebanus he vowed a vow to Saint Wernher, and came with an offering, and offering before his mausoleum and suppliantly pouring out his prayer, he received his sight. Witness XVII Peter Diecz of Stega, 72 years old, added to other things said by him, the falling sickness, that his own daughter Margaret had had the falling sickness; and at the invocation of Saint Wernher, a gift being offered, had been most clemently freed, and is well at present. And to this attests the brother of the same girl, John Diecz of Stega, Witness XXX.

[50] Witness XX John called Stayl, 55 years old added to other things said by him, that in the present year his son Peter, 18 years old, pestilent pustules, had had pestilential mortal pustules eighteen in one leg; and had made a vow to Saint Wernher with two pounds of wax, and graciously was immediately healed. the contraction of both hands, Witness XLVI John Wich, of Nauwen within the limits of Bacharach, 35 years old, said, it was certain to him, that his own wife had been contracted in both hands for five quarters of a year and more; and with a vow sent forth to Saint Wernher and paid, immediately had been healed: and this is notoriously certain to all, or for the greater part, of the parishioners of the Bacharach church. Also he said, a mortal wound, that from a quarrel he had wounded one familiar of Stephen Pistoris, townsman of Bacharach, with one mortal wound, so that the man had been anointed and there was despair of his life: but the witness speaking made a devout vow to Saint Wernher, and immediately he, almost dead, was better, and today lives well. John Crebisz of Bacharach, Witness XLVII, healed, contracted in the arm, added a good miracle to other things said by him. He himself had been contracted in the arm, so that he could not extend his hand to his mouth for a long time: at length he vowed himself to Saint Wernher, and immediately was freed, and today is so, by his help.

[51] Witness LVI, John Rudishemmer of Bacharach, says the articles of sanctity are true and in himself had been proved: sick in the leg, for he himself in the past year, as he said, had a leg so pestiferous, that he would willingly have had it cut off. What more? Amid torments he made a vow to Saint Wernher with a wax leg, which he bought for one florin: and with great labor was brought to Saint Wernher by his own mother, called Paulina, and by his wife called Ella, and by two legitimate carnal sons today surviving: with difficulty but prayers being extended and the offering suspended, well himself walking he departed, in the presence of his mother and wife fellow-witnesses and of the sons and very many men: and today he is equally well and sound. His wife, Ella, Witness CXV, confirms her husband's sayings, because she was present and saw: similarly also the mother, Witness CXXVIII, namely Paulina Ortruds of Stega, 80 years old and more, dwelling in Bacharach with her son a widow; whose husband of the number of citizen Councillors of the Bacharach council.

[52] Witness LXV Engelman Locz, of Lorch of the Mainz diocese, 55 years old or so, Scultetus of the Judgment of Bacharach, three times ailing, said that that Saint successively from three infirmities freed the witness himself, by his prayers poured out to Christ, most clemently. Witness LXVI Nicholas of Germersheim of the Speyer diocese, another sick person Notary of the Lord Duke in the toll-house at Cube, 50 years old, says, that although he is born remotely from the burial of this Saint, yet the same Saint a hundred years ago clemently cured one of his town. Witness LXXV John Kannengeisser, grievously fallen, 66 years old and more, says that in a certain greatest bodily fall within three years, by the prayers of that Saint he had been freed. Witness LXXXIII Peter Scholteisz of Mannebach, asked about the cause why he holds Wernher as a Saint, answered it was a sufficient cause, dying woman because his wife Catharine in her fourth year sick and placed in the last moment of life, had promised herself to go to Saint Wernher, and the same night had been healed, and today lives well, and had lived for two years after the vow: as in the instrument drawn up thereupon, and sealed with ten seals, clearly he said it is contained. But this instrument is, among those produced above, the third.

[53] Witness LXXXIX Gerhard Fulckwin, townsman in Diepach, two dropsical women, Sheriff of both Seats, adds that he saw most manifest miracles done by Saint Wernher in two dropsical persons at Mannebach, of which are sealed instruments, to which he refers. Catharine Kempen, townswoman of Bacharach 60 years old, Witness CVIII, saw here and there many years ago, also at the time of her youth, several signs done by Saint Wernher: a blind and contracted woman, among which she saw two most evidently with her own eyes, one being done in the healing of Lord John Hunczerich, another being done in the wife of a certain townsman of Bacharach called Gauwer, who had been blind and contracted in the legs, and brought to Saint Wernher, and immediately was healed: and at the time in both signs the bell of Saint Wernher was rung. Elizabeth Herdens widow of Bacharach, 60 years old, Witness CX adds, that she had just come down from Frankfurt, that then a certain honest man had come down with her with his gifts to the holy boy Wernher, two in danger of life, saying he had been freed by his prayers from the peril of death. She also added that in the already raging pestilence, a certain notable citizen of Mainz, suddenly deprived of all the persons of his house, his wife, sons and daughters, male and female servants; he himself, lest he die, had vowed himself to Saint Wernher, and received health, and had come down with her with gifts.

[54] one afflicted with the plague, Witness CXVI Mechtildis townswoman of Bacharach, 56 years old, says, that she herself had a mortal and worst ulcer in her neck and in her groin, and had humbly implored that Saint Wernher, and with oblations promised had been heard, and entirely healed: whence to the holy boy she offered a ring of pure gold. Catherine Keyensteyn, virgin 70 years old, of withdrawn life, serving God in chastity, Witness CL says, that she had seen one Presbyter of Speyer about his tomb with an offering; and two others, and from a most evil plague of itching with a fetid swelling had been freed: who also related to her that another man placed in the greatest infirmity depressed, he had induced to make a vow to Saint Wernher, which done he had been freed. Elizabeth Lauwers, virgin fifty years old, Witness CLII, said, that near the past year Nesa virgin of withdrawn life, daughter of Ewald townsman of Bacharach, a knee incurably swollen, had had one leg as it appeared with three knees and a desperate disease: who had vowed herself to Saint Wernher in sincerity of faith, and immediately was freed: and the disease was old of two years, so that hope of all physicians had been taken away. And the same Nesa, daughter of Ewald the merchant, virgin 27 years old and more, withdrawn in the paternal house, in chastity serving God, Witness CLIII, said, that she is that one, of whom mention has already been made concerning the leg: and that she had had that desperate leg, had made a vow, completed it, and immediately had been freed. And Witness CLIV Elizabeth, sister of the said Nesa, virgin 20 years old, with her sister in the paternal house serving God, professed on oath the miracle done in her sister to be true. And the Witness CLVIII soon to be cited answered, that she knows this to be most true, because she saw it.

[55] Catharine, daughter of Henry Ycks, virgin leading a virginal life in the paternal house, one laboring with the plague, 25 years old, Witness CLVII, says that she recently had seen a certain man, as she more likely believes, of Cologne, of great circumspection, who said that by the prayers of Saint Wernher he had been cured of the mortal plague, and therefore had cast two good Rhine florins into the treasury, which above the mausoleum at the feet of the same Saint, with many closures and ironwork, is bound. Witness CLVIII, Agnes Kempen, virgin of withdrawn life, fifty years old, answered, a dead boy, that she had seen another miracle around the first showing of the body of Saint Wernher, of a certain boy already dead, of another man, honest however, and suddenly healed: who also on account of the greatest pressure of various people, could not ascend to the place and the mountain of burial. Catharine Kyesels, sister of the Advocate of Bacharach, virgin of withdrawn life 52 years old, Witness CLIX said, a boy of her younger brother, another scabby, namely of Emerich, four years ago next at the invocation of Saint Wernher from hereditary scab of the head and greatest pus had been freed.

[56] a dying woman, Witness CLXVIII, Sophia of lower Heymbach, of the Mainz diocese, virgin 70 years old or so, who in the hospital in Heymbach of the same Mainz diocese for 38 years and more served God, and ministered to the poor sick, at length received but not sworn, because she was of another diocese and had no superior; but through her baptism to the honor of God, of Blessed Mary, and of the holy Christian faith, about the pure truth to be told, solicitously being interrogated upon the points … added, that a biennium ago she had fallen into the infirmity of death, so that she had no hope of living further: nevertheless she vowed to Saint Wernher an image of three pounds of wax, which made and seen she had been filled with such joy, that she escaped that infirmity , and that image through Hebela the Virgin fellow-witness sent to Blessed Wernher. The same a little before had affirmed the aforesaid Hebela of Bacharach, Witness CLXVI, Virgin Recluse in the recluse of Blessed Mary the Virgin in Heymbach, with other fellow-virgins virginal life leading, fifty years old; and Witness CLXIII in n. 35. aforecited, Hebela's companion, Catharine of Ebren, who equally had ministered to Sophia.

[57] Lisa Seckelers virgin similarly n. 27. aforecited, Witness CLXX, another paralytic, says that she herself had been by the intercession of Saint Wernher; freed from paralysis. Then Witness CLXXI Irmetrudis virgin, of whom n. 30 mention has been made, says, that once she had been dragged to the judgment of Bacharach, and accosted by some: and because she was inexperienced, by those harangues of men terrified she scarcely came to the church, weak in the legs and there so much was weakened in the legs that she could not move: she vowed to Saint Wernher that that cemetery of the church she would not leave, unless first she would visit him in his church, which is contiguous to the parish, and was healed. Finally Nicholas Smidt 65 years old Witness XLIII, elsewhere also named, markedly said, that in many things Saint Wernher he had devoutly invoked, and nothing had been denied him.

[58] various blasphemers punished Such were the benefits which divine goodness in favor of his Martyr granted to men: let us now see how in contrast his honor against blasphemers similar justice has avenged. Witness XI John Kremer, townsman of Bacharach, fifty years old or so, among other things said, that he had been a satellite and a rapacious man also sometime, and had heard many blasphemies against Saint Wernher, who afterwards, their malice repaid upon their necks, firstly a certain swineherd, wailing had begged pardon. Also the centenarian whose deposition was delivered in n. 26, Witness XVIII, named John Biene, said, that 50 years ago a certain driver his, in Bacharach a pig wandering in the street called back with blasphemy against Saint Wernher. Which hearing a certain smith, inflamed with zeal for the Saint, threw at him with a hammer, so that he fell half-dead to the ground, and lying thus, at the invocation of Saint Wernher arose well, amended the blasphemy, and led the pigs where he would.

[59] Witness LXXXII John Senheim; of military rank, fifty years old, dwelling above the Moselle navigable river, a tailor's servant, having many goods within the limits of the Bacharach church, not sworn but of his own motion, and by zeal, as he said, of God, under the faith of baptism recognized and said, that in one village above the Moselle, a servant of a certain tailor had uttered blasphemous words against the holy boy Wernher: and immediately he had been seized by fury for eight days continuously, so that in fury he closed his last day. This he saw with his eyes and knew him, and believes also his saying to have been commended in public Instruments. This noble man of very good life is presumed, for although he has a noble wife, yet he reads the Canonical Hours, as a Presbyter: this we three subscribed Notaries have experienced by experience. Finally Nesa Pedefusz, two gamblers. Witness CLX, virgin leading a life in chastity, 55 years old, asked about the sanctity of Wernher the boy, says that a certain Pastor of the Bacharach church, called John Rummel, of military rank, noble of birth and morals, was in a certain retinue of the ambassy of the Duke of Guelders: and coming from Milan, between Pinguia and Bacharach, a certain satellite gambler cursed Saint Wernher: and suddenly a storm arising the Rhine so frothed, that there was no hope of life for the sailors: the aforesaid Lord John Rummel vowed a vow to Saint Wernher, and the storm ceased, and she seeing he paid the vow. Likewise that another gambler at Bacharach blasphemed the holy boy; but within three days his sides and also entrails up to his lung were consumed: and today he has grandsons at Bacharach.

CHAPTER VII.

Catalog of the remaining Witnesses not expressed hitherto.

[60] Up to now we have gathered the words of those, who are known to have deposed something singular for the honor of the Holy boy: others only in general confirmed the truth of the Martyrdom, the certitude of sanctity, the perpetuity of cult and the frequency of miracles by testifying, whom however lest the memory due to their religion perish, we have thought it fitting to place their names under the view, in the order in which they testified,

Witness V Paul Cemp 65 years old. VI Gerard Knebel of Katzenelenbogen, son of formerly Theoderic the Knight, 70 years old or thereabouts. VIII Peter Durman, 100 years old or thereabouts. XIV Stephen Brunig, brother of Witness XIII, 50 years old or thereabouts, XVI Emmerich of Spangenborg. Of the Mainz diocese, cooper, 62 years old and more, dwelling in Bacharach for long times. XIX John Moer senior, otherwise Morlene, 85 years old and more, almost coeval with Witness XVIII and was with him in the conflict above touched in n. 26. XXI John Scheleweck, 65 years old. XXV Emmerich Haltabe of Stega, 70 years old. XXVI James Seckeler of Stega, senior, 74 years old or thereabouts. XXVII Peter Kune of Stega, 64 years old and more. XXVIII Henry Fudersach, of military rank, dwelling in Stega, fifty years old and more, one among the twelve nobles of the Bacharach council. XXXI Henry Elias of Stega, 70 years old, and more, very rich. XXXIII John Elias, 30 years old of Stega, Sheriff of Bacharach. XXXIV John Salcziger, called Port, of Stega, forty years old and more. XXXV Nadis Swab, townsman of Stega, rich, fifty years old or thereabouts. XXXVI Henry Keyser of Stega, 60 years old and more. XXXVII Hans Hardube, townsman of Stega, 60 years old and more, suitably rich. XXXVIII Nicholas Ickus of Stega, 50 years old and more. XL Peter Herbord townsman of Stega, 80 years old and more. XLVIII John Heynczman of Nauwen 80 years old or thereabouts. XLIX James Seckeler, townsman of Bacharach, son of the ancient Scultetus there, 60 years old and more. LI John Duchscherer, townsman of Bacharach. LII John Cutting, townsman of Bacharach, and familiar in the toll-house of the illustrious Prince Ludwig Count Palatine of the Rhine Duke of Bavaria etc, 80 years old or thereabouts. LIII Cumanus Lupoldi townsman of Bacharach, sub-provisor of the toll-house of the Lord Duke, 60 years old or thereabouts. LIV Smicz Henselin, of Strasbourg, townsman of Bacharach, and principal provisor of the aforesaid

Lord Duke in the Bacharach toll-house, fifty years old or less. LVII John Moer, townsman of Bacharach; 60 years old or less. LVIII William Folcz, 60 years old or less, townsman of Bacharach, LIX Crismannus Trutz, townsman of Stega, 50 years old. LX Henry Surwin, 50 years old and more, townsman of Bacharach. LXI John Pyl, of Altavilla of the Mainz diocese, townsman in Nurayt, within the limits of the Bacharach church for 36 years dwelling: a rustic laborer. LXII John of Crucenach, of the Mainz diocese, 50 years old, townsman of Bacharach. LXIII John Sonnenschyn, townsman in the village Windespag within the limits of the Bacharach church, agrees with the next witness; further being asked, rustically answered, that he did not care for much beyond the vessels of his labor. LXIV Peter Widerait, townsman of Bacharach, now chosen by the Lord Duke as a Councillor among the twelve citizen councillors of the Bacharach council. LXVII John of Schonenburg, 40 years old, Burggrave of the Palatinate castle in the middle of the Rhine, between Cube and Bacharach. LXVIII Peter Sluch, familiar in the Cube toll-house of the Lord Duke, 30 years old and more. LXIX John de Boel, Cellarer of the Lord Duke in Bacharach, there married, 64 years old and more. LXX Ingebrant of Pinguia, of the Mainz diocese native, 50 years old and more, townsman of Bacharach, having enough in goods. LXXI Peter Dym, Sheriff both of the holy Synod and of the Judgment of Bacharach, LXXIII Henry Fudersack, Military, Squire, one of the twelve noble Councillors of the Bacharach council. LXXIV James Ortrud, one of the twelve Councillors among the citizens of the Bacharach council, LXXVII James Goltsmit, 40 years old and more, townsman of Bacharach. LXXXIV Ewald, townsman of Bacharach, with the richer of the place, 60 years old. LXXXV John Cellarer of the Lord Duke in the castle of Furstenberg, 60 years old. LXXXVI Henry Busz, townsman of Bacharach. LXXXVII John Munczenhemmer, Advocate in Diepach and Sheriff of the holy Synod of Bacharach. LXXXVIII Nicholas Norrysz, townsman of Diepach and Sheriff of both Seats of Bacharach, both spiritual and secular. XC Bombsz of Leyhen, Military of Diepach. XCI Goecz of Mannebach, called Geweldiger, Councillor one among the twelve civil councillors of Bacharach, 70 years old. XCII Gerard Henselin of Diepach, Sheriff of Bacharach, 60 years old. XCIII Peter Gysel, septuagenarian, townsman in Mannebach. XCIV Peter Strack; one of the more prominent and richer of Mannebach. XCV Arnold Dieczman, Military 60 years old, Sheriff of the holy Synod and among the nobles one of the twelve Councillors of Bacharach. CII Hans Zymmerman, Master of the fabric of the Cube town. CIII Nicholas Smidt, townsman of Cube, 60 years old, CIV Peter Nesen, townsman of Cube 70 years old. CV Peter Schyrmer, 70 years old, townsman of Cube. CVI Antony Plecz, townsman and Councillor in Cube, CVII John Dorenkemmer of Mannebach, one of the twelve Councillors citizens of the Bacharach council. CIX Catharine Waimpsch, widow of Bacharach, 46 years old or thereabouts. CXII Margaret Kesen, widow of Bacharach 57 years old. CXIII Margaret Moers, wife of John Moers, 54 years old or more. CXIV Elizabeth Roictgins, widow of Bacharach, 70 years old or thereabouts. CXXII Catharine Trutmans 66 years old or thereabouts. CXXIV Elizabeth wife of Monachus, layman of Stega, 70 years old. CXXV Catharine Hunnen, 65 years old. CXXIX Sophia of Military rank wife of the noble man Henry Fudersack of Stega, 40 years old or thereabouts, born of Hactsteyn of the Mainz diocese. CXXXI Odilia, widow of Bacharach, born of Heymbach, 50 years old and more. CXXXII Elisabeth wife of Altmann Bettendorff, supreme Chamberlain of the Lord Duke, etc. among the nobles twelve Councillors of the Bacharach council, of one, sufficiently aged. CXXXIII Elisabeth, wife of John de Boel, Cellarer of the Lord Duke, townsman of Bacharach, 60 years old and more. CXXXIV Agnes, wife of Bertolf called Becker, 60 years old and more. CXXXVI Christina, lawful wife of the principal Notary of the Lord Duke and of his Bacharach toll-house, 40 years old, honest and devout. CXXXVII Elisabeth, wife of formerly John Dudenhorn, Chamberlain of Lord Rupert of blessed memory King of the Romans, and Councillor of the town of Bacharach, now widow of 45 years old, praiseworthy matron and living off her own. CXXXVIII Catharina, wife of John Prum, 60 years old or thereabouts, suitably rich, and honest matron devout. CXXXIX Catharina, wife of John Selig, 30 years old and more. CXL Elisabeth, wife of John Busz, Synodal Sheriff and of the Judgment of Bacharach, honest matron, 60 years old or thereabouts. CXLIV Agnes, wife of Antony Plecz, 16 years old and more, born of Stega, daughter of the brother of the Lord Pastor of Bacharach. CXLV Margaret Glesers, a woman dedicated to God and devout, who already has bequeathed her own to divine things after death, and is septuagenarian. CXLVI Agnes Gysels, 60 years old, wife of Peter Gysels, townswoman in Mannebach. CXLVII Agnes Rathen, virgin in possession, 40 years old or more. CXLVIII Agnes Wernheri, virgin 50 years old. CLI Catharina called in Zendehuse, virgin 80 years old. CLVI Ida, daughter of Madis Smids, virgin 60 years old and more. CLXI Gertrudis Dorffmans, virgin of withdrawn life, 60 years old. CLXV Margareta of Mannebach, virgin in the recluse of the mountain of Blessed Mary in Heymbach within the limits of the Bacharach church, leading a common life with other fellow-sisters, 24 years old. CLXVII Catharina of lower Heymbach, 34 years old or more. CLXXIII Gertrudis, daughter of Stephen Prume, older Advocate, with her father established in decrepit age, virgin serving God. CLXXIV Gecza Stegs, virgin 50 years old and more, of Stega, standing with her own mother of decrepit age. CLXXV Agnes Folmans of Stega, virgin 40 years old or thereabouts. CLXXVI Amelia, daughter of formerly the young Lord Wernher Knebel, admitted without oath, because a nun. CLXXVII Lady Elisabeth, Sister of the already said nun. CLXXVIII Lady Carisma, sister of the two Witnesses just written, virgin standing with her mother, Witness CXLIII: and because these witnesses did not exceed thirty years, singly each point was not asked from them. CLXXIX Margarita Kelners, virgin 80 years old devout and almsgiver. CLXXX Barbara Schonweders of Mannebach, virgin 46 years old or thereabouts.

CHAPTER VIII.

The process of Orators about the Clergy; its responses.

[61] Likewise in the year, day and place as above at the beginning. In the presence of me and of other public subscribed Notaries, and of the venerable witnesses, From the part of the Count Palatine. and of a great multitude of men specially called to this and cited by the beadle personally established, men of great circumspection Henry Wolf military, Burggrave and Vice-Dominus of the glorious and illustrious Prince and Lord Lord Ludwig of the Holy Roman Empire Archdapifer, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria most illustrious, of the district of the Bacharach parish, and also John of Laudenborg, Notary of the Bacharach toll-house, and of the said illustrious Prince, and in the name of the same, in the presence of the venerable and circumspect man, the Bacharach Clergy interrogated Lord Winand of Stega, Doctor of Decrees and Pastor of Bacharach, interrogated, asked more diligently, and inquired from the subscribed discreet men and Lords, namely John Fudersack of SS. Peter and Paul, John Kiese senior, John Donner of Saint Nicholas Bishop of the Chapel of Saint Anne of Stega, and also from John Kelver of Saint John, John Trutman of Saint Barbara, Henry Dorenkemmer of Blessed Mary, John Kiese junior of Saint Nicholas, James Mantel of Saint Michael, John Besieher of Saint Catharine, James Schieszer of Saint Margaret, Vicars of the altars of the Bacharach Church, which of them was the immediate superior and Judge. Who unanimously and with consonant voice answered; to whose obedience he is subject that from ancient and prescribed custom, and from the fortification of various ancient instruments, and also from the Royal namely of divine memory Lord Rupert King of the Romans most illustrious ever Augustus provident ordination, with the consent of the Clergy, nay more truly by new approval or collaudation, their superior and collator of all their benefices of the district of the Bacharach Church ordinary, for now was the prelibated Lord Winand Pastor of the Bacharach Church, and answering that of the Lord Pastor, as his predecessors had been up to the present, from such a time, of which the beginning is not in the memory of men: and that the same Lord Winand has to command them, to mandate, to inhibit, and to discuss their causes, not only of them, but also of the Prior and Convent of Windspach within the limits of the Bacharach church, not only among them, but also between them and the Laity; joined to him, when the cause concerns the Laity, the Burggrave of Bacharach, as these are more fully contained in instruments and Royal letters, and from custom inviolably have been obtained up to the present. Which also we three Notaries here subscribed on our own behalf also recognize, because altarists and subjects of the above-touched Lord Pastor, also by the Burggrave himself interrogated.

[62] By which response, as has been said, made, the same Henry Burggrave with John the Notary, in the place and stead of the above-written Lord Duke Ludwig, required the above-said Pastor, by whom he is compelled to swear under the faith and oath often-written given to the Lord Duke, that he, concerning the aforesaid points, of his Vicars, and singly from each, to this, as is the custom, by the bell-ringer having been called together, should receive promises and oaths, concerning the truth to be told and falsity to be avoided. Which the Lord Winand, the protest having been made that he would not do these things in prejudice of his diocesan, nor would he intend to do so in any way; but only as an obedient son of his natural Lord he would do these things, to the glory of God Omnipotent and to the investigation of sincere truth; received from each of the aforesaid Vicars promises and oaths of clearly telling the truth, of telling the truth to be given, how much to them and what was certain about the things to be inquired by them and by any of them. The points, however, by the Burggrave and Notary assigned to them are these. First what they know concerning the life, martyrdom, death, reposition of Saint Wernher, concerning the structure of the new Chapel of the same Saint Wernher, and concerning the old miracles, and the writing down of the same, and concerning the new miracles also daily shining by the same; and the other circumstances, pertaining to the investigation of this deed.

[63] The first testifies And first Lord John Fudersack Witness CLXXXI, sworn, received, admitted and examined, sixty years old, not excommunicated, or entangled in any infamous crime, sufficiently abounding in temporals, nothing hoping of gain or emolument, but only God and his glory holding before hand; first said, that it was not only public voice and fame; but as sincere truth from his parents, and also from all people, clerics and laymen, from the life of Saint Wernher up to him, and to his times spread abroad, that the blessed boy himself Saint Wernher, from Wanmerayt, a village of the Trier diocese of rustic stock had been born, a boy simple and pious: and that on the very day of the Lord's Supper at Wesel he was communicated, the birth of Saint Wernher and by the impious Jews cruelly martyred, they seeking in him the body of Christ: but that when they could not have it, they turned their savagery upon the mystical body of Christ, namely the holy boy, and suspended him on a statue, which today at Wesel of the Trier diocese, in the chapel of the Holy Spirit, the martyrdom is held by all in no small reverence: and there they slew the same holy boy, as these things in the old Legend of the same Saint, at the time in the presence of all produced, on the first and last parchment leaves, and in the Antiphons, and very many Responsories; in old letters with sweet harmony on paper written is more fully contained, to which he also refers.

[64] Asked, why he is named Saint Wernher, and whence he knows him to be a Saint; answered, called a Saint that he does not know except from the relation of his ancestors, since he did not see these things; but most firmly believes him a Saint, since as such by all the inhabitants, clerics and laymen, through all the times of the life of the speaking witness himself, he has been held, kept and so named. candles lighted, And even always before forty years he had seen candles placed by upright men upon his tomb; for the tomb and the most precious structure of the new chapel around the chapel of Saint Cunibert are the greatest indications of his sanctity. Asked, whence this: he answered, for this and from that, because in the oak chest, between most secure ironwork above ground, the body is elevated, so that even a dog could run between the tomb and the ground, that most venerable body had been venerably placed: and his right hand silvered had been cautiously placed above the tomb, which today is shown in a golden ministering vessel. The honor of this Deposition he does not believe was done for any Prince. Also asked, a chapel constructed, whence from his new chapel he believes truer sanctity; he says it luminously appears from this, because the chapel itself after his martyrdom most preciously had been begun, and for its structure perhaps the altar of the smaller chapel, namely of Saint Cunibert, had been destroyed, and newly, as appears to the eye, with a new structure erected, and by the Reverend Father Lord Hermann Bishop of Samii, then Vicar in Pontificals of Lord Sifrid Archbishop of Cologne, Indulgences given. newly consecrated; also by the express command of the Archbishop of Trier, accustomed Indulgences being applied to the same structure to be made, as in the letter of the aforesaid Lord Bishop consecrating is contained; to which he refers.

[65] Asked whether he knows other causes of the sanctity of the same Saint Wernher, he answered that yes. The first is, because formerly Lord Peter Archbishop of Mainz, about thirty years after the passion of the same Saint Wernher, for that chapel so erected and for its completion, had bestowed forty days of Indulgences, at least with the consent of the Ordinary. And that these Indulgences the Ordinary for the time, namely Baldwin Archbishop of Trier, strengthened by his letters. Likewise from another, because for the structure of the new chapel of the same, namely a biennium or so after the Martyrdom of the same Saint, two Archbishops and ten Bishops, as he more truly believes, for the completion of the same work, extended their mellifluous Indulgences; which also the Reverend, Father Bohemund, formerly Archbishop of Trier confirmed, as in the sealed letters of all the aforesaid Archbishops and Bishops, today contained at Saint Wernher's, most clearly is contained, miracles done, to the tenor of which he refers. Asked, whether he knows any other causes of the sanctity of the same blessed boy, he says, that near the epitaph of Saint Wernher hangs, of very ancient, large, and textual letter, of more than 100 years as he believes, a tablet; which also he had seen hanging there 50 years ago; in which, as he believes, 90 most florid miracles are diligently and carefully written; and that of that tablet there is a copy in the chest of Saint Wernher, written in similar letter, with the tablet in tenor agreeing, and as he believes in age, although it appears newer, perhaps because of its being enclosed. Likewise he says there always had hung, and today hangs an ancient tablet, containing his life, miracles and sanctity in the vernacular. Also that today the silvered knife is shown, with which the boy himself was slain.

[66] Asked, a Presbyter seen by him contracted, and healed: whether he knows other miracles: he answered, that he had seen Lord John Hunczerich, contracted in both hands, most bitterly weeping because he could not read Masses, brought to Saint Wernher, by Stephen Prume senior Advocate today surviving, and Lord Henry Beren, and Lord Bertold Presbyters with a multitude of Clergy and people; soon an offering and prayer being made restored to complete health, and afterwards every day had ascended to the same Saint Wernher, who had preserved him sound for many years, in which with Masses and other Divine things he faithfully served God and Saint Wernher; also that altar before the tomb of Saint Wernher up to the end of his life he officiated. And he also related of very many miracles, through the next three years done, votive offerings hung. which are many and very great, so that he could not retain them in mind; and so various, that of various wax pieces, signs of miracles, there are more than ten hundredweights, nay more than fifteen conglomerated; and a perpetual candle shines there, and most copiously around the mausoleum of that Saint are waxen pieces, and also fetters and manacles of iron most strong: nay so vulgar is his sanctity and possession of sanctity, so that it would be right to say, that this transcends every prescription, even of a hundred years. it is wicked if his sanctity be doubted. Nay firmly he believes, if anyone within the limits of the Bacharach church were to hold Blessed Wernher not to be a Saint, it would generate in Clergy and people the greatest scandal; and perhaps such a sedition, that he would be overwhelmed with stones, on account of the so manifold and various most distinguished miracles of the blessed boy, which are clear in many public instruments, to which he refers. Being conducted, surrounded, suborned, or otherwise in any way instructed or compelled he entirely denies; but that he is doing these things or has deposed simply to the glory of God and for the exaltation of the holy faith; that the holy Apostolic, and also Trier See, might concerning the aforesaid more fully be able to be informed.

[67] The other witnesses from the Clergy, To this deposition agree the responses of the other of the Clergy, of whom already previously named by us are Witness CLXXXIII, V, VIII, IX and CXCV and CXCIX; then CCI, III, IV, V; the rest by these names in order gave testimony, namely

CLXXXII John Kelner, notably over 50 years old. CLXXXIV John Kiese junior, 27 years old, Altarist of the Bacharach church. CLXXXVI James Mantel, 36 years old, Altarist of the chapel of Saint Michael under the structure of Saint Wernher. CLXXXVII James Schieszer, Altarist of the Bacharach church, 35 years old or less. CXC James Sliechtingh, 40 years old, Presbyter Altarist of the church in Diepach, placed under the Pastor's obedience. CXCI Nicholas Ennelin, 50 years old, in Mannebach Beneficiary, subject of the Pastor of Bacharach. CXCII Conrad, Altarist of Saint Catherine in Diepach, of the obedience of the Pastor of Bacharach. CXCIII Henry Dorenkemmer, Altarist of the Bacharach church, 26 years old. CXCIV Gemperlin, Rector of the chapel of Blessed Mary the Virgin in the mountain of Heymbach, obedientiary of the Pastor of Bacharach, does not believe he exceeds 45 years. CXCVI John Margborg, Plebanus in Diepach, subject of the Pastor of Bacharach, 50 years old or thereabouts. CXCVII Henry Richhere, Altarist of Bacharach, 40 years old. CXCVIII John Auspurg of Meysenheym, Altarist of Saint Jodocus, under the obedience of the Pastor of Bacharach, 30 years old. CC John Schonweder, of Mannebach, Presbyter within the limits of the Bacharach church, 40 years old. CCIII John Chaplain in Bacharach, Master in Arts, familiar of the Lord Pastor, 40 years old or thereabouts. CCVI Peter Pistoris of Diepach, Cellarer of the house at Windspach or of Saint Wernher 36 years old, and the Brethren from Windspach, by the mandate of his Prior sworn. CCVII Tilmann Finkeler, Brother Priest of the same house 36 years old and more. CCVIII Jacob Caldarificis of Diepach, Brother of the same house, 26 years old and more. CCIX John Falendail, Brother of the same house, 22 years old or thereabouts. CCX Nicholas Angeli of Kaiserslautern, of the Speyer Diocese, Brother of the same house, 50 years old and more.

[68] Finally Witness CCXI, Lord Winand of Stega Doctor of Decrees Pastor of Bacharach, not sworn (since a superior to him at present he said he did not see), but by the consideration of another, The Pastor alleges the old Acts. namely of the Lord Duke, by the Consular oath, which to the same, as his true natural Lord and in temporals Superior, he had given: being asked about each of the points, which he excellently knows; answered that he himself believes those to be infallibly true. Thus pious truth holds itself as regards very many Saints, the tomb unmoved in an earthquake, of whose literal canonization there is no record. For he himself said he had more often read through many ancient histories of the martyrdom of this Saint, and he refers himself to those. And 50 years ago he saw an earthquake about the tomb of this Saint, the Saint unmoved, although the tomb is above the earth, and the ground is most solid rock, laid with squared stones, which however had been disturbed into disorder. Also he himself at the doubt and instance of Magnates with others, sought the Saint in the tomb; and found him in his blood, as the history above sings, and many public instruments. miracles written in the Process. Also many miracles are certain to him, instrumentally written in this Process, to which he referred himself.

[69] Being asked, whether he himself venerates him as a Saint: he says that he with his subjects does not publicly venerate him, on account of the precept of the Apostolic See (and he speaks of his Clerics), but in private has honored and honors him, and believes him a Saint, on account of Christ sought in him, suffered in him, and himself having suffered for Christ. Nay he himself saw him honored by more than 300 thousand men, he saw him honored by 300 thousand men, in the space of 50 years, by Cardinals, Archbishops, Doctors of all faculties, Princes, Counts, Nobles, and what is more by every condition and sex of men. Asked, what emolument he has from it; he said this is his emolument, that from ancient custom is accustomed to have 60 or 100 florins in offerings of Masses from his subjects and the school; now scarcely does he have 30 florins, because they offer there for the sake of the Indulgences. Asked, what from what is offered there he takes in place of the Canonical portion; he answered, absolutely nothing, for two reasons. The first is of avarice, because he would be noted by all the neighbors, he intends to promote the cult and also by the Prince, without whose favor and protection he cannot hold his state there. The second cause and stronger, if he wished to have the Canonical portion, immediately the structure of that most noble work would be postponed; and thus the Pastor himself would be frustrated of his end, which is, that that Saint, shining with so many and so great most distinguished miracles, be canonized; the high Altar of that most Noble chapel, in honor of the Trinity, of the Blessed Mary the Virgin and of the Saints of both Johns, and of that Blessed Wernher be endowed; and every day one Mass with music most early in the morning of the most blessed Christ-bearer be celebrated; so that from this endowment and others already mentioned the Pastor himself may take the highest end without end.

CHAPTER IX.

Attestation of the Wesel magistrate, and of the Convent of Wilhelmites: and the Notarial faith of the Processes transcribed.

[70] Finally to the confirming of the Bacharach Process there were added two public instruments; the first under this title, The Community of Wesel testifies. "Recognition of the Community of the formerly Imperial town of Upper Wesel," of this tenor; "We the Scultetus, Sheriffs, Masters of citizens, and Councillors of the Town and Community of Wesel, of the Trier Diocese, as true faithful of Christ and under the faith of the same, under the tenor of the presents publicly recognize, that by public and notorious voice and fame, openly from our ancestors, from a time of which the memory now of living men is not, up to us brought, openly heard and in writings made manifest, of blessed memory Wernher the youth from the village of Wammerayt had taken his origin, in our city slain, and in the painful week by the unfaithful Jews, in our aforesaid city, in a certain cellar near the chapel of the Holy Spirit miserably had suffered and been killed: and he then had been led up to Windspach above Bacharach, and there hidden and again made manifest, and at Bacharach (where he now lies) honorably buried had been; held as a Martyr by his own and others: and under his name a noble chapel was begun there. And the same Wernher had been from then, by many of our ancestors and neighbors round about; as by Hungarians, Slavs etc. as a Saint and Martyr of Christ held and venerated; and so is venerated at present by innumerable men, not only in Bacharach where he rests, but also in diverse parts of the world as common experience teaches; nay also in our town aforesaid the statue of his torment by various peoples is honored, in so great honor, that cut into pieces, many thousands of its pieces to diverse kingdoms with veneration have been carried; and the statue itself so much diminished, that we, lest it be entirely carried away, have fortified it with boards, that it can no longer be cut. In evident and true testimony of which matter, we have directed the secret seal of the city of our aforesaid to be appended to the presents, in the year of the Lord 1428, on the day of Blessed Catherine Virgin and Martyr.

[71] Of the later instrument (for the sign of John Hoffman concerning the miracle done in him, which was here inserted, we gave after the History of miracles) the title was this: "Recognition of the house of Windspach otherwise Furstentayl"; tenor indeed as follows: "We Philip, Prior and whole Convent of the monastery of a Furstentayl, near Bacharach of the Trier Diocese, otherwise of Saint Wernher, Prior and Convent of Saint William at Windspach. according to the lower province's naming, of the Order of Saint Wilhelm, for the memory of future ones under the truth of our profession, as to us from the relation of old ones, fame, public truth, and letters very many, through authentic and sealed, by which also we are established, came; by the tenor of the presents we recognize, that Blessed Wernher at Bacharach in the little hill in the ancient chapel of Saint Cunibert, surrounded by a new most precious chapel resting, not much distance from our monastery, up to here through continuous 100 years and notably more, venerably by all inhabitants and innumerable foreigners as a Saint and Martyr of Christ, testify the ancient veneration in three places, shining with manifold miracles and the highest, in three places, namely in our monastery, in Bacharach, and at Wesel, the place of his most glorious palm, of the Trier Diocese venerably has been venerated, cultivated, and as such by all held: as in Wesel, from the ancient Imperial city, by the letters and seals of the same city, and by the statue of the same passion in the chapel of the Holy Spirit, and his body at Bacharach, and his body's hiding with us at the time of his passion, notoriously and publicly attest. Nay, what is more, our monastery from his passion and sanctity took the exordium of its naming, as is clear by the various letters of the most distinguished Princes of the Rhine, Electors of the Roman Empire. For in the second year following his martyrdom, for his honor, we were founded, and by many Princes, out of reverence of the same Martyr we are established, which cannot be disputed, and at length by Nicholas the fourth confirmed. Nay firmly we believe, that great scandal, sedition and schism would be generated in the Church of God, if a man shining with signs of such distinguished sanctity, were placed in certain doubt: who suffered for Christ, and Christ in him sustained so much, that almost the whole Church of Christ, even with the longest prescription cultivated him as a Saint and held him openly, publicly and notoriously. Nor do we believe that miracles, done in life, must be ruminated in Martyrs, for Christ, for justice or the liberty of the Church suffered, as in Confessors; since in these the humble endurance of the passion suffices, as is clear to those inspecting the Legends of Martyrs. Whence concluding we believe and piously profess, that most pious boy Saint Wernher, for Apostolic canonization, on account of his sanctity and most distinguished miracles, to be most worthy: and if otherwise were done (always saving the determination of the Apostolic See) we would fear scandal to come in the Church of God. Whence the seals of our administration, priorate and convent are appended, in the year of the Lord 1429, on the 14th day of the month of February.

[72] Thus far the most distinguished Codex, written in textual letter of firm constitution; the public Notaries Imperial by authority Thomas Cube subscribe, there follow their own and with running hand of each of the Notaries written subscriptions of the same, worthy to be related whole, because each contains a special motive: only in place of the notarial sign we shall substitute ✠, and thus they read. ✠ "And I Thomas Cube of Bacharach, Cleric of the Trier diocese, public Notary by Imperial authority, because to the aforesaid, to the solemn perorationing, to the gathering of Clergy and people, to the successive production of instruments, monuments, and other authentic letters many and of other testimonial letters and histories successive production, and almost of all the witnesses examination I was present; and all these things, or the greatest part of them, with the other Co-notaries, or the greater part of them, and many worthy witnesses, as has been prescribed, I saw and heard done, and the relation of many most distinguished signs of that most holy blessed boy I took down in notes; and him almost by every kind of men, both sexes, and every condition, and various peoples as a Saint openly, publicly and notoriously I saw being venerated: and therefore, with the appending of authentic seals, namely of the Bacharach Church and of the valleys of the Rhine, which they use in most arduous causes, with certain collation made of all the monuments here inserted, and by another faithfully written out, and duly and diligently collated; with these codices, most diligently from folio to folio b concatenated, I have subscribed, in faith and most evident testimony of all and each of the aforesaid, in the praise of Omnipotent God, his Mother, of the whole heavenly Curia, and for the most salutary increment of the Church of Christ the Redeemer ."

[73] John Ausburg, ✠ "And I John Auspurg of Meisenheim, Cleric of the Mainz Diocese, public Imperial authority Notary. Because to all and each of the aforesaid according to the manner and form which the next above-written Co-notary touches, together with the other Notaries and witnesses I was present, and saw and heard them so done, the most circumspect collation of all I made and the most true, with the original agreeing in whatever letters, histories and depositions: therefore this most correct codex fortified with seals, and in all things agreeing with the originals by another faithfully written I have subscribed, and with my sign and name I have signed (for the glory of Omnipotent God, his Mother, of both Churches of Christ, and for the veneration of the most blessed Wernher) in faith and testimony of all the aforesaid."

[74] John Trutman, ✠ "And I John Trutman of Stega, Cleric of the Trier diocese, public Imperial authority Notary, because to the peroration, to the production of diverse letters, to the collation of many miracles in the original, and to very many other things as a witness I was present; and the same Saint Wernher by Most Reverend Fathers Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Prelates, Princes, Counts, and their wives, Nobles, and men of all conditions and sexes, in the number of many thousands, solemnly as a Saint religiously to be cultivated and venerated I saw and heard; if the contrary were introduced, I believe scandal in the Church of God would be generated; therefore this codex, written elsewhere, yet well collated, composed, and strengthened with seals, I have subscribed, for the glory of God, legitimately required."

[75] John Arbis, ✠ "And I John Arbis of Wesel, Cleric of the Trier diocese, public Imperial authority Notary. Because of the aforewritten strengthening documents, of the production of letters and writing, and of the exemplification, and of all the things above touched of the most faithful concordance's finding with the originals, together with the other Co-notaries and witnesses I was present, and in this sealed little book transcribed I have found; and that same blessed Martyr and Virgin Saint Wernher, not only at Bacharach where he rests; but also among us at Wesel, where the statue of his passion is venerably placed, in the chapel of the Holy Spirit being honored, and him as a Saint being cultivated by innumerable men, and as such being cultivated, held, and by all venerated I saw and heard… c therefore this consigned little book, as has been said, collated, and agreeing with the originals, elsewhere written, with the other Co-notaries I have subscribed, and with my usual and customary sign and name I have signed, in faith and evident testimony of all the aforesaid, legitimately required."

[76] Peter Fabiani, ✠ "And I Peter Fabiani of Henzberg, of the Meissen diocese, public by the sacred Imperial authority Notary; because to the aforesaid of the Venerable of the Most Illustrious Prince Lord Ludwig Count Palatine of the Rhine of the orators done, performed, produced examinations, and many and wondrous miracles, and productions of many witnesses and depositions I was present; and the holy Wernher by innumerable men, nay innumerable, as a Saint being cultivated I saw and heard; nay today most solemnly he is cultivated by the permission d of the Apostolic See, and by his own merits; so that to assert the contrary would be scandalous in the Church of God would produce scandal; and he himself frequently among the canonized Saints of the Church as a Saint is depicted, at Wesel the place of his martyrdom, at Bacharach and in many other places with palm and diadem; to these also this instrumented little book I saw best collated, and to the originals in tenor agreeing; therefore I have subscribed myself, with my name and sign duly applied, for the testimony of the aforesaid and faith legitimately required."

[77] Tilmann Rudigeri, ✠ "And I Tilmann Rudigeri of Bacharach, Cleric of the Trier diocese, public Imperial authority Notary; because Saint Wernher among the Saints shining with diadem and palm depicted manifoldly I have found; to the preparation of the aforesaid chained little book in very many passes with other Notaries I was present; and it agreeing with the originals I saw, all the Witnesses or almost, here received, with the tributes of testimonies efficacious and truthful I knew and saw; therefore this codex most diligently examined and founded on truth (also urging conscience, since to doubt about the sanctity of so most distinguished a Martyr would introduce scandal to the Church of God scandalous) I have subscribed, and with my name and sign signed, with the appending of two seals, legitimately required."

[78] ✠ "And I John Kese of Bacharach, Cleric of the Trier diocese, public Imperial authority Notary, John Kese, because of the venerable aforewritten orators' e harangue, to the proposition, to the calling together of Clergy and people, to the production of letters, to the reception of oaths, to the exhibition of witnesses, to the showing of histories, to the giving of oaths, and to almost all the witnesses' examination together with the other Co-notaries publicly I was present, and saw and heard them so done; therefore this codex, although written elsewhere faithfully, yet by us commonly more faithfully collated, and from folio to folio with certain figures of letters f and senses concatenated and duplicated, at the request of the aforesaid Orators I have subscribed, and with the seals of the Bacharach church and of the Community of the same fortified, with my usual and customary sign and name, for the praise of Christ, his Mother, and for the increase of the church concerning so many most lofty miracles, I have signed and published; (especially since Saint Wernher in possession of his sanctity for 100 years and more has been; and among the Saints, by the writing of the laity, is manifoldly depicted as a Saint in diverse places, with diadem and palm; and to assert the contrary would introduce scandal) in faith and testimony of all the aforesaid."

[79] "And we Winand of Stega, Doctor of Decrees, Pastor of the church of Bacharach of the Trier diocese, and with these Winand of Stega the Pastor, and the whole Council of the same Town and of the valleys of the Rhine, which consists of twelve Nobles and as many civil persons; because it is most clearly established to us, that all the above-written are most true, and that all and each of these before us, or before some not few of us, have been done, and as the Notaries have written done, concluded, and perfected, and in three h in all things agreeing codices faithfully written, collated, subscribed; and with similar fidelity redacted; and since it is established to us with brightest knowledge that the holy boy himself, according to the series of his histories, suffered for Christ, and Christ in him; and him in possession of such sanctity beyond the memory of all men now living, among the best and gravest, continuously nay from the day of his burial, peacefully, for the space of 140 years up to the present, to have been and to be; that same happy Martyr by every rank, condition, kind and sex of infinite men in diverse places, namely at Wesel the place of his martyrdom, at Windspach of his hiding; and at Bacharach of his magnificent burial, we have seen as a holy Martyr of Christ to be cultivated and devoutly venerated, and in the writing of laity among Saints diadem-like to be depicted; and many and wondrous upon his invocation daily to be done most distinguished signs and stupendous miracles, every trepidation concerning his sanctity entirely absorbing; so much that if so serene sanctity were turned into doubt, in the Church of Christ, in many kingdoms and provinces, a pestilent scandal would be introduced: therefore for the exaltation of the faith and the increase of the sacrosanct Roman and Apostolic Church, at the request of the above-written venerable orators Henry Wolff of Spanheim, Burggrave, &c. and John Protonotary of the Bacharach toll-house, in the name of our Lord Most Illustrious Prince Lord Ludwig, Count Palatine of the Rhine, of the sacrosanct Roman Empire Archdapifer, and most illustrious Duke of Bavaria; we have with the subscription of seven Notaries, both of the church of Bacharach and of the aforesaid Council's great seals, with certain knowledge to these to be co-appended, for the faith of present and future, seeking nothing but the reward of eternal goods. Amen. Given and concluded, and sealed in the year of the Lord 1429, on the day of the Lord's Annunciation, i which was of the passion both of Christ and of his Martyr Wernher."

ANNOTATIONS.

"TO THE PRAISE OF JESUS CHRIST, THE REVERENCE OF JOHN AND OF ALL CHRIST'S ELECT AND OF BLESSED WERNHER, THIS WORK WINAND, DOCTOR OF DECREES, HAS BUILT." There are

however almost as many folios as there are here letters, for few have two; but the last two, that the intended sense may be completed, are concatenated with seven letters.

TRANSLATION OF THE RELICS

Wernher boy, slain at Wesel, deposited at Bacharach, on the Rhine in the diocese of Trier (St.)

FROM MSS.

§ I. A finger of Saint Wernher carried to Besançon.

[1] John James Chiffletius, in his Vesontio part 2 ch. 85, thus writes: "In the year 1548 John Chuppin, Canon of Saint Mary Magdalene of Besançon, carried the index finger of the right hand of Saint Vernerius, a most distinguished Martyr among the people of Trier, with a part of his sudary, from the town of Baccarac of the Trier diocese to the church of Saint Mary Magdalene, by the license of John Elect of Trier and of Frederick Count Palatine." Then the Besançon vine-dressers, a great part of the people, with good auspices chose Saint Vernerius as their Patron, and under his name and patronage a pious sodality was erected in the aforesaid church of Saint Magdalene. The ecclesiastical office is taken from the Common of a Martyr, the Lessons proper to the history of Saint Wernher himself, which in the Legendary of the aforesaid church are noted, to be read on the Kalends of January. I believe because this day as more convenient to itself the Sodality chose.

[2] To the composition of the Lessons, as appears from the transcript, sent to us by the aforeapparently praised Chiflet, new lessons are composed at Besançon, the matter was furnished by notice received at Trier or Bacharach: which the author so followed, that in the very substance of the history he nowhere strayed from the truth, in certain minor circumstances he hallucinated: first indeed in place of the name of Saint Cunibert, of whose chapel the body of Wernher was brought into, the Patron, substituting the name of Saint Lambert, by an easy alteration of the first strokes: then that approval of the cult which in the year 1427 was made through the Apostolic Legate, taking for absolute Canonization done by Pope Martin; since the protest of the witnesses, affirming that on account of so many arguments brought forth in the process worthy to be Wernher who should be canonized, precisely excludes it. not without errors, But when it is said, "in the year one hundred and twentieth after the holy Martyr Vernerius (thus the name is written by the Burgundians) was killed by the Jews, was by Martin the Supreme Pontiff in the Catalog of Saints numbered"; the error is doubled, for because for 140 (which space of time between the aforesaid approval and the martyrdom of Wernher flowed) the author seems to have read 120.

[3] I say error, because although by the diligence of the Pastor of Bacharach, as great as we have seen above, he intended full canonization; and Martin the Pontiff yet lived one year after the codex of monuments written and signed by the Notaries: to be corrected by more certain monuments, yet it ought not to be believed that the matter was accomplished, of which no trace is found among the people of Bacharach and of Trier. With a similar error it is said in the same Lessons that "each with such great liberality contributed his means to the building of the temple, that when the work was completed and magnificently constructed, a great sum of money was left over; which however a certain Archbishop of Trier took away": for expressly Winand the pastor and others above ascribed the cause of the unfinished work to the shameful rapacity of the Archbishop. Nor is it more credible, in such great silence of the people of Bacharach relating this matter, that what is said, that money with the robbers submerged in the river Rhine at Bacharach town at length arrived, that is returned to where it had been taken: for this would have been a great augmentation of the miracle, nor would it have less tenaciously clung to the memory of the inhabitants; than other far lesser circumstances of vengeance exacted on the sacrilegious robbers, and recalled by the witnesses.

[4] Having omitted therefore the Burgundian lessons, inasmuch as from them we can learn nothing, which we have not more certainly in the Col. 735C aforesaid monuments explained; let us give here their last part, meanwhile from them it is clear which is about the Translation of the finger, and is expressed in these words: "This therefore most holy Martyr Vernerius, with innumerable miracles and prodigies to these times has gloriously shone forth; that certainly among the principal things is thought to be held, the cult of the saint even under the Lutherans: that in that province, where he is cultivated, although laboring with the Lutheran plague, yet never has it ceased, that his patronage by public and private vows religiously is sought. For no darkness of heretics, no arts of Satan, no perfidy of depraved men could drive off so great a light. But at the time when Charles the Fifth, the most invincible Caesar, having successfully waged the German war, was composing the motions of that province with singular piety, and was meditating with every effort of his mind, that the wound, which through the madness of heretics the Church had received, might at length be healed; at that very time a certain good and pious man, whose index finger with a particle of his sudary, kindled with the desire of propagating the divine glory, which in the Saints is made more illustrious, took care that a particle of the holy relics of the Martyr Vernerius be given to the Church, which at Besançon to Blessed Magdalene is sacred: who as much as by grace or authority he could avail, with the suffrage of most ample men being added, conferred to this, that from those, in whose power was the right of imparting what he desired, he might obtain it. By the grant therefore of the Legate of the holy Apostolic See, and also by the authority of the Archbishop of Trier, Frederick Count Palatine and Archdapifer of the Sacred Roman Empire and Prince Elector liberally indulged, that from the body of the Martyr Vernerius the right index finger be taken out, and a particle of the sudary, stained with the blood of the same Martyr, be given by the citizens of Bacharach of the Trier diocese.

[5] Joyful therefore with so distinguished a gift the pious man, rejoicing, with as great speed as he could, that finger with a particle of the sudary officially and honorably transmitted thither, it is reverently received at Besançon. a written document being added and symbols and testimonies of the same Archbishop, Prince and citizens. Which most distinguished gift of that Church the Canons and the whole Clergy with highest religion and alacrity received; and held nothing more important, than that not only by the townsmen and citizens of Besançon, but also by the whole province of the Sequani, the memory of that most holy Martyr Vernerius should be cultivated: and that this might proceed by legitimate authority, they supplicated the Most Reverend Father Lord for the time Administrator of the Besançon Church, that by the tally of his authority he would decree testified and approved, that nothing in that matter was feigned, or through fraud thought out, and is exposed to public veneration. but to be sincere and true relics of the same Martyr. Who for his faith and religion established and pronounced, that no one henceforth should doubt about that matter. But that occasion might be given to the faithful with greater devotion to honor God in his Saints, and to beseech the patronage of this most blessed Martyr, from the inexhaustible treasury of the Church Indulgences of forty days by ordinary power are conferred upon those, who in the same church of Blessed Magdalene, venerate with cult, alms and services the relics of the same holy Martyr. May God therefore who is the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, this city, which now adorned with many Saints' monuments, most recently enriched with the relics of this most holy Martyr Vernerius is, fecundate with his blessing, and grant, that the same Holy Martyr so we cultivate by invoking, that we may always receive his aid by praying, through Christ Jesus our Savior."

§ II The body of Saint Wernher removed from Bacharach, passes into the power of Marquis Spinola.

[6] The whole series of the history noted in the title we give from the authentic copy of that relation, which by his own hand wrote out Fr. Thomas Saillius, Superior of the Mission in the Catholic Camps under the Most Excellent Lord Marquis Spinola waging war in the Palatinate, author of the whole matter and principal actor: take it as it is. After the Most Excellent Lord Ambrosius Spinola, Marquis de Sesto, Marquis Spinola having occupied Bacharach, Counsellor of state of the Catholic Majesty, and Captain General in the Palatinate, for the obedience of Imperial Majesty, had reduced the little town, named Baccharach, with its castle, situated on the Rhine, on the 3rd day of October, with several other towns; he understood that there were reposited certain Relics of a youth, whose name was Wernher, who was the last (as men worthy of faith assert) Martyr of Germany. This one, since there on account of the Lutheran heresy first, then Calvinian introduced lay uncultivated, who in highest esteem and honor once was held by the Orthodox, and by the same at the time of persecution there had been deposited, the Marquis spared no effort, that that body, and sacred pledge, from the obscure place be dug out. Which so that it might be done more easily and safely, he inquires about the body of Saint Wernher, in so great perfidy of our enemies, and of the haters of the Catholic faith, his Excellency resolved to the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Apostolic Nuncio, residing at Cologne, a namely the Bishop of Vigiliarum to have recourse, and to ask him by letters, that he call the Canons of Saint Andrew to himself, and from them learn, as the Provisors of that Church of Bacharach, what they knew concerning that Saint. Who most kindly on the 12th of February of this year 1621 gave letters to his Excellency in place of a reply, praising his effort, that he so maturely and prudently in dubious matters proceeded, with the relation of the Canons of Saint Andrew received, knowing the frauds of some, who in place of true Relics sell false or less certain ones, more often; sending at the same time b the relation, which from the said Canons he had obtained, with certain other testimonies drawn from elsewhere.

[7] and from Mainz of one from the Society of Jesus, Fr. Martin Scheffer, by the order of the Rector of the College of Mainz. Fr. Balthasar Hagger, to the same Fr. Thomas Saillius in reply concerning the same Relics had already before written on December 14 in the year 1620. "As regards the holy relics of Saint Wernher, this I have from the mouth of the Rector, that two of ours were at Bacharach, who say that the inhabitants all say, that of that holy Martyr they have relics, in that church still closed up, which they think was built in honor of that Saint: and the place is shown, where it rests, although some affirm that it is kept above the vault of the church. Which all things the Governor very well understood." c

[8] A commission given to Captain Tourlandt, By these testimonies confirmed the Most Excellent Lord Marquis, committed to Lord James Tourlandt, Captain of infantry, who is now Lieutenant of the Most Illustrious Lord Prince of Chimay, that with secrecy kept, in that ruinous and closed church for many years (of which mention above) to which by one hundred steps from the cemetery of the parish church one ascends, he should inquire for the body of the Saint, with the license of the Governor. Who when he had ordered some faithful soldiers, that under the pretext of finding some hidden treasures of money, they should dig through the whole pavement, and search the vaults themselves, if by chance anything there lurked; he found nothing. But doubling the labors, striking the walls all around with an iron hammer, he detected, opposite the place where once the altar had been erected on the left side, something to be hollow: and from the resonating hum he gathered that something there was hidden. Wherefore immediately he caused the squared stone to be taken out from the wall: it is found, which removed, a head appeared resting on a silken pillow, filled with well-smelling herbs, whose odor still breathes sweetly; as can be seen now, after in another box, with greater decency by Fr. Thomas it was placed; although on account of age, and the humidity of the flesh it was perforated, and somewhat torn.

[9] Which when it had been seen by that Captain, who with highest zeal was seeking the holy youth; he caused immediately the locker to be resealed, and the cracks made to be stopped with lime, until to the Marquis what had been done should be signified. He having communicated the matter with the said Father, Frs. Saillius and Medardus are sent there desired that as soon as possible he himself should set out for Bacharach, letters of credence being given to the Governor of this place himself, as if about to treat some other matters. Said, done. He indeed on the eighth day of March, with his carriage, and having taken as companion Fr. Cornelius Medardus, willingly this journey undertook, together with the Captain otherwise named, who the whole matter previously had explored. About the tenth evening when men are wont to sleep deeply, with the Governor of the place and others by night they approach: there joined them Lord Balthazar de Baucen, Governor of the place, a knight, that they might go to the place of burial. There were present also Peter Lichtermoet, Designator of lodgings, whom they call Fourier, and another Quartermaster called Peter Mander, honored men and Catholic soldiers; who with iron instruments applied opened the locker, they separate the head from the body, Which done the said Fathers, with lights kindled, with due reverence the sacred entire Head before all from the rest of the body separated, and in a small chest brought for this decently placed, with the very pillow on which it had lain, full of lavender, and certain other herbs: then they took out all the other bones up to the smallest extremities of the feet and hands. they gather all the bones. From the very skull's teeth and of other bones quantity, it is easy to see, that it was not a man, but a boy or youth, who there by the ancient Catholics (when on account of persecutions perhaps there was need for speed, lest so great a treasure by iconoclasts be either burned or cast away) was deposited, with the wooden sarcophagi and ornaments left, of which above has been said. For also in our time forty years ago many bodies of Saints had been despoiled of their ornaments; and in secret places hidden, with few knowing: which now again the storm being calmed in Belgium have been restored to pristine honor, God being merciful.

[10] But certain rather rare and most worthy of observation things were seen in this burial. First that in the wall itself, The tomb was of squared stone, from living and squared stones, and these most hard, fitted and cut the sepulcher had been, by the force of iron and hammers, not longer nor wider than to take a body of a youth. Second, that after the head, living lime added to the body, and with it the stones smeared: the rest part of the body, (which perhaps was still whole) had been suffused with living lime. Third, there appeared traces of the fingers, which were fitting that body in the lime, and smearing the stone all around with the same lime, so that the rougher wall from blows should appear more level and more honest, as happens when in rocks little niches are cut. Fourth, there stood out a little window, once fabricated, which was now covered with lime and obstructed with cut stones through which that holy body could have been seen, and the little window stopped up: and from outside cultivated by pilgrims approaching, who their little gifts, of coins, flowers, and waxen offerings were accustomed once to offer. Fifth that still was found a coin of ancient money of Frankfurt silver: there were found, a coin, perhaps more had been hidden in the ruins of the sepulcher, which the first soldiers, who opened the sepulcher, perhaps found and out of devotion or otherwise stole them. Also one leaf of a palm, also some quantity of wax at his feet melted. For these are the gifts of the poor. Above the head and the rest of the body it is likely that some cloth had been extended, as appears from certain little pieces adjoined. Sixth, a palm leaf, parts of wax, and of flesh. there were found many little particles of flesh, which perhaps the lime did not touch, nor consume.

[11] Seventh, that above the place of the exterior wall, where the body was lying hid, there had been painted some box, in the manner of a temple or chapel, before which many pilgrims of both sexes kneel, holding rosaries in their hands, on the wall was a painting of the chapel, of kneeling pilgrims, and as if venerating the said painted chapel. A little above was a painted image, representing a Priest, who in the ancient manner, clothed with chasuble and stole, was seen, with raised hands with the host, at a painted altar saying Mass; behind whose back there were seen pilgrims variously painted, some with bent knees, and of a celebrating priest, some standing, praying. In the painting, with a certain little title were some words expressed, one of these was so corrupt, that it could not be read: others were of this kind: 1437, on the 6th feria after the Nativity of the Lord here poured out and reconditioned. d It is thought that once some accident had happened at the neighboring altar while some Priest was celebrating, either on the sacred Host, or in the pouring of the Chalice, as can be seen in many towns of Flanders and elsewhere. There was found above the breast of Saint Wernher a certain Relic, wrapped in a silken small cloth, and tied with a thread. What this is cannot be known. Those images are sketched in the following figure.

[12] Col. 737B the martyrdom painted in a window, Eighth, it is to be noted that on the left side of the altar (which is destroyed by the heretics) in a most beautiful and ancient window there was expressed the martyrdom of Saint Wernher. Ninth, in the very principal door of the church, artfully and from most hard wood made, there was expressed a small statue of that Saint with a wooden instrument like a trough, in which lime prepared by the servants of mason-fabricators is wont to be carried to the fabrics or walls to be built. a statue on the door of the church. The tradition is, that the good youth by similar works or diggings had sought his living. a stone canal leading water from a fountain, Tenth, there still remained a stone canal which from the neighboring fountain once grew so high, that through it water flowed through the whole church into the other part night and day: but now depressed, and through hidden underground places pours itself forth, it is not known where. With this water many sick were once wont to be healed; and who now wish to use it, draw it with buckets and it is most clear and of unusual taste. Eleventh, also notable is this, that a certain man of sixty years, John Lymbor, by art a glassmaker and citizen of Bacharach, before Fr. Thomas Saillius and Cornelius Medardus of the Society of Jesus the Priests, had testified; that from his parents he had heard, that Hungarians at that time had come, and from the Palatine Frederick the One-Eyed, Father of Count Casimir, had sought at least one finger of this Wernher, Hungarians accustomed to carry that water. and had suffered refusal: and that he in his time had seen this church whole and visited by Hungarian pilgrims and them water from that fountain had drawn; and since there was no hope of having relics, at least flasks with salutary waters they had filled, to relieve various languors in their fatherland frequent. He testified also that in the same church he had heard sermons, and letters, where to school had been converted, had learned.

[13] Twelfth, moreover worthy of note, that a certain pious Priest, Lord Andrew Stronck, Canon of Worms in Blessed Virgin, a Priest of thirty-two years: a column expressing the martyrdom is at Wesel. who at this evil time an exile from his Church, among Catholic soldiers at Bacharach acts as Chaplain under Lord Balthasar Bancen the Knight, who here, I say, a citizen of upper Wesel asserts; that he had heard from the elders of that town, in which he was born, that that Wernher affected with martyrdom at Wesel, and there stands a column in a certain hospital, with an inscription expressing the kind of martyrdom. He asserted then, that the elders of that little town hold as certain, that when the body of the martyr was being buried, it did not remain in the earth; but that God permitted, that outside the earth it cast itself; and when it was placed in a carriage and dragged by two oxen, those without a leader there fixed their feet, where now it was brought and buried; nor could they be moved from the place, until the body of the Saint was deposited. And the people of Wesel themselves to this day assert, that not with them, but at Bacharach he rests. Which in fact they proved. For they are wont every year in the Rogation days with various crosses (as was once the custom) and processionally to Bacharach to that church to go. The procession of the people of Wesel to Bacharach A certain old man still living, and for three years lying in bed, says that in his boyhood he had observed this custom. But he who now at Wesel acts as Prætor, is said to be of the family of him, who when he had heard Wernher crying for help, when he was being oppressed by the Jews, was unwilling to help, corrupted by money received from the perfidious: who could not die, until he should manifest the secret. He who now is Prætor has been lying sick for three years, hoping he will obtain health, if he could visit the holy body. There is extant a certain protocol at Wesel, in which wonderful miracles are had, which at this body were performed.

[14] Fr. Thomas Saillius also received most ancient letters, written 200 years ago on parchment or membrane, in the German tongue, containing rare miracles, miracles translated from German. which to him on the 9th of March sent Lord Ludwig Custia, Governor now of the little town e of Kanbiacum, opposite as it were to Baccharach across the Rhine, to whom Fr. Saillius had sent a man, that if he had anything pertaining to this Martyr he should send it; which he did. The original of the said letters is sent with the same relics: but these the Father caused to be translated into the Latin tongue and added here.

[15] Copy of the letters containing the miracles of Saint Wernher, translated from the German tongue into Latin. "The miracles below described occurred from the day of SS. Peter and Paul in the year 1426, from the day June 29 1416, by the power of God Omnipotent, at the invocation of Saint Wernher, whose truth by f information, by instruments, by witnesses heard upon these things, was confirmed.

I First a certain boy of one year, born of Catharine of Perscheit, had been dead for a whole hour, and to life at the invocation of this Saint Wernher returned. g II Also Elizabeth Porren was deaf and blind, and her son Elizabeta h dropsical and blind, each recovered health and sight. III Also John Snabel i born at Aschaffenburg, was affected with incurable wounds, from which he was freed, and acquired health. IV Also Catharine k Scholteisz of Mambach, who for a year and a half had been dropsical, and very swollen, or inflated in body, was healed. V Also the son of the Scultetus l or Prætor of Buxbach, four years old, struck by the kick of a fierce horse, died and revived. VI Also Henry Kricht, dislocated in the arms and laboring from them for more than a year, was restored to pristine health. VII A certain nobleman, Godfrey of Schoenenburch, laboring with anguish of heart, was freed. VIII The son of Jacob Ortwin of Mambach, entirely phthisic, was better. IX Gerlac Irmele m of Breitscheyt when he had one foot burned, and kindled by fire, and for three years could not be cured, by invoking Saint Wernher obtained health. X Wenceslaus, son of Master Gregory d'Albanil of Heidelberg, when in one foot with intolerable pain he was tormented, and of desperate health, recovered at the invocation of the Saint. XI Also Catharine n wife of Master Peter the Surgeon, when twice she had borne two dead sons, the third time having recourse to Saint Wernher, and offering some little gifts, afterwards bore one living offspring. XII Peter of Condexens, was freed from his various diseases, XIII A hostess, who dwelt at Mainz in the house which had the sign of the golden sheep, for one year had lain sick, her members dislocated, namely her arms, recovered. XIV A certain noble Knight, who had offered a great statue made of wax, when enemies were pursuing him, and the Knight was compelled to enter the river Moselle, invoked Saint Wernher, and to the bank of the river swam safe. XV John Biersten of Walhausen, when he was blind for two years, having made a pilgrimage to Saint Wernher, on the journey itself recovered his sight. XVI Ursula wife of John o of Birchem made foolish, and without the use of judgment, returned to herself made well. XVII John Furster of Altzey, for the space of eight years blind, saw excellently. XVIII The wife of Hebel Stercken of Ludenrait, had a kinswoman, who was called Agnes, p of four and a half years: struck by the kick of some horse, thence died, and recovered life. XIX Francis the Cobbler of Mainz, burned with infernal fire, which some call the fire of Saint Anthony, at length was freed. XX The son of Henry Bunder of Mainz, twelve years old, with both feet so twisted, that he could not walk, nor stand on his feet; recovered his health, so that he could walk uprightly. XXI The wife of a certain Appel of Mainz, brought her son of four and a half years; who with both shins was so bruised, that neither could he stand, nor sit: then he was mute. And when she had called Wernher into her aid, entirely restored and made whole he was. XXII Also Peter the Tailor of Wilstain, and his wife named Margaret, on the feast q of Saint Kilian brought their daughter Kunigunda of five years, who had been mute for nine days, to the Saint, and began to speak. XXIII Lawrence Ryt, and his wife Catharine of Widerborch, brought to the Saint their son John, of the age of seven years, r who for three hours had been dead, again returned to life. XXIV Conrad Budeter of Mainz, by chance had killed a little one with the kick of a recalcitrating horse: who again with the use of life used it, XXV Anna s of Leideneck around Cestelem brought one of her sons, named Nicholas, fifteen years old, who for three days had been blind, and obtained his sight. XXVI Albert of Straubing, who in the Rhine near Gerinsheim had been submerged, and for an hour had been under the waters, lived again, as soon as he had invoked Saint Wernher. XXVII Frederick of Walkalgesheim and Gutilda his wife brought their daughter called Margaret, who for more than five hours had been dead; as soon as they came to Saint Wernher, she received life again. XXVIII Also John Bechman of Wisenburch, for many years fifteen suffered infirmities, who on the day of Saint Matthew had come there; where he called upon Saint Wernher for help, and obtained health."

[16] From these miracles and other signs before alleged probably it can be believed, that this body which the Most Excellent Lord Marquis with such devotion from that cave wished to be brought out, is of Saint Wernher, to whose prayers and merits we humbly commend ourselves, and from him help, in this most just war we can hope. But that this fatherland not be entirely deprived of its Patron, some smaller bones set apart were carried, with the license of the said Marquis, some bones deposited at Mainz. to be sent to Mainz to the college of the Society of Jesus; that if in any case at any time the Catholic religion be restored, the Bacharach Church may have some monument of its Martyr. That these things were so found asserts the aforesaid Fr. Thomas Saillius and Fr. Cornelius Medardus, Frs. Saillius and Medardus subscribe. who in all things were eyewitnesses; and to this writing they subscribed with their own hand, at Cruzenack, on the 12th day of March 1621. This relation was approved and signed by the Reverend Fathers Thomas Saillius and Cornelius Medardus Priests of the Society of Jesus eyewitnesses. Which to be true I attest I the undersigned, who also have copied this relation extracted from the original. F. Medardus Robillartz, Religious Priest unworthy of the order of Saint Benedict.

ANNOTATIONS.

k Ibidem n. 7.

l Ibidem n. 6.

n Ibidem n. 2.

p See Instrument VII concerning Agnes and the following Francis.

q Saint Kilian Bishop and Martyr is venerated on July 8.

r From this miracle Instrument IX begins.

s Instrument VIII n. 18 calls her Anna, and precedes the miracle which here follows.

§ III. The Relics of the Saint in Belgium and Italy.

[17] A tooth is given to the Professed House of St. I. of Antwerp Cornelius Medardus, of whom above mention has been made, as present to the aforerelated finding and attesting its truth, did not so idly stand by that sacred action, that he did not indulge something of his own peculiar devotion toward the Saint and receive as a reward of the labor performed some little particles of the venerable body, one of which he left to our House of Antwerp under this handwriting. "I the undersigned, Priest of the Society of Jesus, after the most excellent Lord Marquis Spinola, being in the Palatinate with the royal army, had given charge to the Reverend Father Thomas Sayllius and to me, of seeking the body of Saint Wernher, a boy martyr of fifteen years, and we found it; among the other parts of the Relics, which for the sake of devotion I kept for myself, also this tooth I received, which I willingly gave as a gift to the Reverend Father Jacob Tirinus, Provost of the Professed House of the Society of Jesus at Antwerp, on June 29 in the year 1621. In which faith these things I have subscribed and subsigned with my own hand. At Brussels, on July 14 of the aforenoted year."

[18] But to where the other particles came, which Cornelius says he kept for the sake of devotion, with the approval of the Bishop. thus far we do not know: he himself in the year 1623 on the 16th day of February dying at Antwerp flew to the rewards of his Apostolic labors: we keep the tooth given by him in the rich furniture of sacred Relics, within magnificent reliquaries, if there are any anywhere, stored away; of which one white one wrought with distinguished work, with other relics of Holy Martyrs not Pontiffs contains it. Of the same tooth an express notice we have found in the approval and enumeration of our Relics, at the request of the Reverend Father John de Tollenare Provost of the said house, signed by the Most Reverend Bishop of Antwerp John Malder, to the Novitiate of Mechelen, a knee-bone in the year 1625, October 30. In the same our house even now dwells the Jubilarian old man Reverend Father James Libenius who remembers, that when he himself about the same time, when the tooth was given to us, at Mechelen a novice of the Society dwelt, thither came Fr. Thomas Sayllius, and the treasury of sacred Relics, for exciting the piety of the Novices, copiously instructed with pledges of very many Saints, augmented with a certain little bone of Saint Wernher; which there even now is kept in a peculiar pyx, and is a knee-bone (physicians call the kneecap), testifies the Rector of that College and Novitiate Reverend Father Louis de Camargo, required by letters, but nothing about this matter is found written.

[19] Ambrosius Spinola having died at the siege of Casale of Saint Evasius whither he had been called by the Catholic King, From the remaining body to be carried to Italy his son and heir of the goods ordered to be carried to Italy whatever of paternal right had remained in Belgium: and by that occasion it happened, that the small chest, which contained the body of Saint Wernher, at Lille, a most opulent emporium of Flanders, was deposited with the distinguished and learned man Lord John Paul Guidoboni Pessini, Counsellor of Royal Majesty and Master of Accounts in his supreme Chamber of Flanders most worthy, and also Treasurer of the Most Illustrious Marquis Ambrosius Spinola while he lived: at whose John Paul's request Louis Fardeau, Protonotary of the Apostolic See and of the Collegiate church of Saint Mary of the city of Lens, a small rib taken from Lille, of the Arras diocese in the County of Artois, Canon, by his own handwriting given at Brussels on December 16 of the year 1633 attests, that he had extracted a small rib, which the aforesaid Lord Pessini for the cause of devotion and piety took for himself, from the body of Saint Wernher the Martyr: which indeed body was extracted from the little town of Bacherac, situated on the Rhine, from the chapel of Saint Cunibert, which is on a hill near the parish of the said place, with the consent of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Apostolic Nuncio, and from the due license of the Canons of Saint Andrew residing at Cologne, as Provisors of the Bacharach church, and to the Most Illustrious and Most Excellent Marquis Spinola given, while he was in the expedition of the lower Palatinate. An authentic copy of this attestation (in which also by name is alleged the writing of Fathers Sailly and Medardus, as executors and witnesses of the found and translated body) is kept at Lille with the Discalced Carmelites, to whom at length the aforesaid little rib came with a notarial instrument which from the original French into Latin I add, and it is such.

[20] given to the Carmelite Convent of that city "Before me the notary and the subscribed witnesses appeared Lady Maria Francisca Roberti, wife of Lord John Philip l'Entailleur, Squire, Lord of Warde and of Haute-porte: who for the greater glory of God and of Saint Wernher declared, that she had one bone, taken from the glorious body of the said Saint Wernher: which bone she already previously gave to the Reverend Father Peter Thomas of Saint Louis, Carmelite Discalced, in the Douai residence at present dwelling, to the end that with every possible reason he should take care to promote the honor of so venerable and certain a Relic. But now being asked the aforesaid Lady to strengthen the faith to be had concerning it, she declares that the said Relic, given to the aforesaid Fr. Peter Thomas, and twice sealed with the seal of her formerly husband, and wrapped in a band of rose color, had been received from the body of Saint Wernher, before Lady Maria Robillart, with the Notarial attestation of the event her mother, then in second nuptials joined with Lord John Paul Pessini, Counsellor of the King and of the Chamber of accounts at Lille Master: and that when the said holy body was at Lille in his house, to public veneration exposed, before it was sent to Italy to the Marquis Spinola, son of him who had been General Leader of the Royal arms in Belgium: to whom when, the Palatinate being subdued, a huge sum of money was offered, he indeed refused it; but in its place, on account of the great which toward Saint Wernher he had devotion, he asked and obtained his body; which with great caution and certainty to these parts had been brought, is proved by authentic attestations, to the said Peter Thomas given into his hands together with the Relic… Done at Brussels on the 20th of March 1644, before the Reverend Father Julian of Saint Peter Discalced Carmelite of the Brussels Residence, and Lord Philip de Monstreuil Standard-bearer, witnesses called and asked for this, and me the Royal Notary John Sdroogen."

[21] and with the approval of the Vicariate of Tournai, These and other documents seen, the Vicars General of the Bishopric of Tournai, the See being vacant, by letters given in the year 1647 on the 7th day of February attested, that having inspected and examined a certain little bone, of the length of about half a finger, extracted from the body of Saint Wernher Martyr in Germany, with two seals depending from byssus of rose color… to Fr. Peter Thomas of Saint Louis given, and by the same Father to the Convent of the Lille town to be given, they had found the said little bone to be true relics of the said holy Martyr, and as such they had recognized and approved them. All which also to us were proved, with the submitted authentic copies of the aforesaid attestations, by the kindness of the Reverend Father Peter of the Mother of God; who moreover in his letter testifies, that there had been given to him by the Procurator of the Convent of Tournai a particle of dried flesh from the body of the same Saint, found in the shrine of a certain Fr. Felix, who had it from the said Fr. Peter Thomas: of which Relic of the truth of which so much more certainly it is established for him, as more expressly in the history of the finding is said, that "there were found many particles of flesh, which perhaps the lime did not touch nor consume," as is had in n. 10.

[22] In the year 1644 an attestation of the ancient cult is sent to Genoa The rest of the body having been carried to Italy, when concerning it exposing to public veneration the Lord Marquis son of Ambrosius was thinking, wrote to Bolland in the year 1644 some one of our Fathers of Genoa, in the name of the aforesaid Marquis, that he should take pains, that through the Ordinary of the place it should be established that the body of Saint Wernher was held in honor as a Martyr, and that this it was which to Marquis Spinola carried Fr. Saillius and Fr. Medardus. Bolland luminously did what was demanded: for from those monuments which were then at hand printed or written by hand, he gathered a Commentary on the martyrdom and cult of Saint Wernher, which to us even now has been of no small help; and made it so that it seemed least necessary, in such great light of public writings, to require the testimony of the Ordinary: then he illustrated the relation written by the said Fathers with his annotations; and that to that relation the weight of other witnesses might be added, if any weight could be added further, he wrote to the Rector of our College of Mainz Joachim Hamman, who interrogating various men, at last from a certain Father of ours, born near Bacharach (whose name the Rector's letters of August 6 of the said year do not express) obtained an attestation written in these words: "I remember very well, when before the Swedish tumults I was living at Cruzenach in the Lower Palatinate under Spanish rule, often from the same Regiment, and the aforesaid removal of the body and from the very Confessor of the Most Illustrious Marquis Spinola the Reverend Father Hermann Hugo of pious memory, to have heard, that the Holy Boy and Martyr Wernher had rested at Bacharach in the Basilica built in honor of the same Martyr, up to the very occupation of the same town by Marquis Spinola by order and command of the Catholic King. The town having been occupied the Marquis so great a treasure, withdrawn from the calumnies of Calvinists, to the King of the Spains thus assenting, into the Spains themselves it was then said to have been sent. I myself saw not much later at Bacharach, his stone tomb, in the wall of the aforesaid Basilica, on the left side of the high altar, enclosed, opened and empty: nay from the inhabitants themselves, although most fierce followers of Calvin, the same things, which I have narrated, I often heard."

[23] it was thought now to be deposited at Roxani, These things sent to Italy nothing has been written to us thereafter, by which we might be taught, whether in any and which church the sacred pledge was deposited. Therefore since this April was now at hand, I gave letters to Genoa to the Reverend Father John Stephen Fliscus, a diligent helper of our work in the parts of Liguria, that among the Proceres of the Spinola family inquiry being held, before all things he should try to learn the place of that sacred deposit, then also the rest of the things he should try to obtain: who at length to the questions thus answered. The Most Excellent Marquis Paul Spinula-Doria, head of the family led by Ambrosius Marquis, is far from here for the Catholic Majesty of the King of Spain with the Most August Caesar Leopold Legate at Vienna: it was not permitted to meet him, and through him to obtain the required documents; meanwhile from a certain of his household I received the following. That Saint Wernher, carried to Italy, and for some time kept at home within private houses, finally in a magnificently constructed church, at Roxani (which is a town of the Dertosan diocese and a fief of the same Marquis) had been placed within a chapel, in which some other relics of Saints have been placed, each enclosed in its own gilded receptacles: but that the care of that church is held by the Franciscans, surnamed from the Observance, and a frequent people venerating those sacred relics.

[24] whence requested and promised documents With this notice obtained to the Marquis himself I gave letters, that the monuments of ancestral piety be drawn out and transmitted ordered to Antwerp: who immediately in these words answered: "Having received the letter of Your Paternity, full indeed both of religion toward the Saints, and of benevolence toward me and my grandfather, I held each both sweetest and most pleasing: and I wrote immediately to the Guardian of Roxani, that in the chapel dedicated to sacred Relics, which is in the very famous temple and monastery erected from the foundations by the same grandfather, he should search for the holy deposit; and about it more distinctly inform me, and about other things which in the same relics have been found, so that all these things I may take care to transmit to Antwerp. Meanwhile by this your singular benignity toward me and by the sanctity of your most praiseworthy undertaking, by which the history of Saint Wernher you have undertaken to write, or have already written and publicly prepare, most highly bound, I pray for perennity to the work. At Vienna on March 9, 1683." Now prone to me I hoped the rest, and believed myself to hold them in my hands; when there came from the Guardian an answer, that having inspected the catalog of Relics, which his convent keeps, they could not yet be obtained, no mention of Saint Wernher there was found, or a body in any of the sacred receptacles. With new letters therefore was called upon the Most Excellent Marquis; but he had nothing certain to answer; with letters again written, which I also append, that it may appear that no part of human diligence has been omitted by us. The words of the letter in the same year on the 30th day of November given from Vienna are these.

[25] on account of the absence of the Marquis, "I grievously lament, that, during my still continuing absence from home nothing certain can be brought forward about the body of Saint Wernher. Indeed very likely I suspect, that my Grandfather consigned that sacred body, to some other of his predilect temples. either to the monastery of Saint Leonard of Genoa, in which were educated his daughters, or also to his son Cardinal of Compostela and then of Seville Archbishop. But as has been said, I have nothing certain: nor can my archive of the household be so easily searched and unrolled in my absence, which I being present would most willingly do. I therefore give thanks to Your Paternity, for the highest benevolence, which you have professed, toward me and my grandfather: and I lament that I am detained here by circumstances of the times, so that I cannot render it efficacious in a matter of such piety, otherwise most desiring to submit them. from which moreover an immortal name would arise for our family in a work so distinguished, to which the virtue of most holy men and the pen of the most learned rightly promises perennity." Thus he, more than our merits, and for that end here brought in, that if it should happen that most excellent man, absent from his fatherland for the sake of the public good, or otherwise hindered from executing his excellent will when he shall return, cannot satisfy our wishes; some one of his sons or grandsons, having read these letters which are indicators of the paternal will, strive to fulfill the same, for the future supplement of the work. Meanwhile inquiry was made with the nuns of Saint Leonard, and the reply given that not even there is known anything about Saint Wernher. Into Spain for such an uncertain matter to have recourse it did not please.