ON THE HOLY MARTYRS OF MAINZ: AUREUS OR AURAEUS THE BISHOP, JUSTINA HIS SISTER THE VIRGIN, A MIXED MULTITUDE OF EACH SEX; AND JUSTINUS THE DEACON. IN THE YEAR 451 PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Aureus the Bishop, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Justina his Sister, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Justinus the Deacon, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Many other Martyrs at Mainz and Heiligenstadt (SS.) BHL Number: 0826
WITH D. P. AS AUTHOR.
§. I. On their cult at Mainz; and the time of their passion and Finding. After it pleased the authorities to augment the number of the Roman Provinces, originally established under Augustus, for the more convenient governance of the same; and Belgica, extending far from the Seine and Marne up to the Rhine, Mainz, which [was the first Metropolis of Germania.] was divided in two, into the First, which looked toward the East; and the Second, which looked toward the West; of this latter the city of Reims, of the former the city of Trier was the Metropolis. And the Second indeed, as it was instituted so it remained, as long as the Empire stood: the First, which retained throughout the use of the Teutonic or Germanic language, was soon cut in three in such a way, that whatever is watered by the river Moselle retained the name of First Belgica; but on either side the parts cut off along the Rhine; the Southern indeed began to be called Germania First; the Northern, the Second; and this latter had Cologne, the former Mainz (Maguntiacum or Maguntia), as its Archiepiscopal seat. But all three, and even the second Belgica itself, by the inundating Huns under Attila in the year 451 having suffered a dire devastation, around the irruption of the Huns under Attila did not return to their ancient splendor and the integrity of their Hierarchical state sooner than the Frankish Empire was established in them: the last of all however, Germania First, having moreover suffered much from the Slavs, had almost returned to the ancient barbarism, when St. Boniface, of whom we treated on the 5th of June, under King Pippin, was constituted Archbishop of Mainz, in the 8th century of Christ.
[2] Nevertheless there are numbered in a continuous Order forty Bishops of Mainz, from St. Crescens, who is thought to have been a disciple of the Apostle Paul, up to the aforesaid St. Boniface: of whom twenty are held [as] Saints, and among the first St. Aureus held also [as] a Martyr; today his memory recurs and is celebrated, inscribed everywhere in the copies of Usuard augmented for Germany. The first, as far indeed as I know, to give the example for doing this was Blessed Rabanus Maurus, the fifth Archbishop after St. Boniface: Aureus the Bishop, the first, I say; for Bede and Ado, although cited by Baronius in his Notes, in their genuine Martyrologies did not mention him: but Rabanus, adding Justina too in his, after the eulogy of Saints Ferreolus and Ferrutio, Saints Cyricus and Julitta being passed over, ends the day with these words: "And in the city of Mainz, the passion of Saints Aureus the Bishop and Justina his Sister, first by Rabanus. Ascribed to the Martyrology with Justina, who by the Huns laying waste the aforesaid city were killed in the church."
[3] Of Usuard we have four parchment copies: one brought from Utrecht, another in Alsace written for the use of a certain Teutonic Commandery in the year 1412; a third, bought at Lübeck by Henry Ranzau the Knight in the year 1584, so that it is at least a hundred years older, written there or in the vicinity and given to us in the College of Prague; a fourth in folio, in a large and most elegant Teutonic character, as also another, I know not whence sent to us; in all these with entirely the same tenor, it is read thus: "At the city of Mainz, the feast of the holy Martyrs Aureus the Bishop of the same city, and of Justina his sister." Rabanus's words Molanus transcribed in his Additions, and other Martyrologies before him printed at Cologne and augmented, with words here and there truncated: but more fully the Basel one, printed in the year 1583, in this manner: "At Mainz the passion of the Holy Aureus and Justina his Sister and of the other Martyrs, then with various copies of Usuard in Germany, who, holding a Synaxis (assembly), assaulted by the Huns, who were plundering Germany, with a sudden onset, were slaughtered in the church." In the Margin is added A.D. 454. The Roman Revisers, and at last with the Basel and Roman [Martyrology with Companions:] under Gregory XIII, transcribed the Basel one; and so today to the aforesaid two, who alone were anciently commemorated, has been added the rest of the Sacred crowd of those present, and that by no means without reason, since Sigehardus below in number 11 testifies that in the year 1175 and 1267, many of their bodies, with certain indications of Martyrdom, were found. But I add also Justinus the Deacon, together with St. Aureus, as Patron of the people of Heiligenstadt. The very many Usuard manuscripts which we saw throughout Italy and Gaul, augmented for the use of various churches, all are silent about them, except that one of the Conventuals of Chambéry in Savoy, after the name of St. Verolus the Confessor, has the name of St. Justina the Virgin.
[4] Not so easily, as to the Martyrologies, could new names be added to the Ecclesiastical Calendars; these being wont to contain only those, the same to the Mainz Calendars alone for whom some Office was to be made: but this without a special and proper cause was not done. And so in the old Breviaries of the neighboring churches all the calendars are vacant on the 16th of the Kalends of July. In the Mainz ones alone, therefore, the names of Saints Aureus and Justina offer themselves to us, as to be festively celebrated with an ecclesiastical Office. In those which we have printed in the year 1495 and 1507, festively inscribed in the 15th century. only it is said in the text; "of Aureus and Justina solemnly," (to which is opposed the "Ferially," by which is performed the Office, which we now call Simple) as of Martyrs in the Common of the Saints; and only this proper Prayer is added: "O God, who art glorified in the council of the holy Martyrs Aureus and Justina, with a Prayer in the Breviary. look upon the prayers of our humility, and of those whose solemnities we celebrate, by their prayers may we merit to be aided." There followed the printing of the year 1570, from whose calendar these words are absent, "Festively, Ferially"; but in the text it is sufficiently shown, that the Office is to be performed festively; since are prescribed three Nocturns, and at the first three proper Lessons, about the Saints noted in the Calendar: which then also moved the neighboring people of Worms, so that in the calendar of the year 1576, to the name of Ferreolus were added the names of Aureus and Justina; and in the Breviary was prescribed an office of Martyrs of three Lessons, namely the common, with this Prayer: "O God, who grantest us to venerate the birthdays of thy holy Martyrs Ferreolus, Aureus, and Justina; grant us in eternal gladness to rejoice in their fellowship."
[5] Latomus in Serarius, in his Notes to the Breviary of Mainz, says, "St. Aureus is mentioned as having suffered Was he slain at Dalheim? in a chapel near Dalheim, where still an altar is shown reddened with martyric blood, not without a miracle." This place is nearest to those masonry structures built outside the city, which, whether they are remains of aqueducts rather than of walls, is disputed; and between that place and the present-day city is placed the church of St. Aureus, formerly of St. Hilary. Perhaps also there is shown there still a Well, into which the corpse was cast by the sacrilegious. But if at Heiligenstadt, of which soon, that holy Bishop was killed, the aforesaid things about the blood and the well must be referred to his sister St. Justina, and her companions, and how [was he commonly called Auraeus?] Clerics and Laymen of each sex; some of whom, making sacrifice at the altar, or fleeing to it, could have besprinkled it with his own blood. "For the rest I know not," says Latomus, "how prettily we may say Auraeus, the middle syllable lengthened." Serarius suspects that he was called Auraeus, or Araeus, or Oraeus, by a Greek name, namely from Αὖρα (Aura), a gentle Wind, Ἄρης (Ares) Mars, or Ὄρος (Oros), Mountain. I think no reason of usage need be sought; no more, than why the Divine Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, at Trier, where she had a palace, and elsewhere throughout each Germany, and Gaul, is everywhere called, with the penult likewise lengthened, Helena, Helene.
[6] That the reason of the name and the genuine pronunciation remains uncertain, is less of an inconvenience; than that the time of the Bishopric exercised by St. Aureus or Auraeus is ambiguous; Which in the order of Bishops, as one who in the age of Charles IV the Emperor was believed to have been the first Bishop of Mainz, but by Serarius is numbered the twenty-fourth, [and] by Sigehardus, according to the old (as he prefaces) Catalogue of Bishops, is the sixth from St. Crescens; but before the great Boniface, Gotelo being excluded, the tenth, in the number of Bishops now received, diminished below half. Of Crescens, the disciple of St. Paul, and who were the first? I shall treat on the 27th of this June; and I shall make it probable that the Bishop of Mainz (if there was any) of that name is better distinguished from him. Here I would say, that it seems no inept conjecture, by which the Mainz Crescens and Crescentius will be reckoned the same person; whom there succeeded Marinus or Martinus, nothing better than that one Crescens/Crescentius split into two; then Saints Ciriacus and Hilarius, the prior titular of the church in Dalheim; from thence some others, up to St. Maximus; and again some, up to St. Aureus, the number and order not yet ascertained.
[7] Sigehardus, about to narrate the death of St. Aureus, in Chapter 10 in our numbering; "At that time," he says, The year of the slaying badly noted [as 454,] "with Opilio and Vincomalus as Consuls, after Theodosius the Younger, Marcian in the East, Valentinian in the West presided over the fasces of the Roman Empire, and the highest and universal Bishop of the Roman Church was held to be Pope Leo, the first of this name; but it was after the Incarnation of the Lord in these days the four hundred fifty-fourth year": And again, in Chapter 20 in our numbering and the last, he thus finishes the whole writing: "For the rest, that thou mayest briefly, O Reader, find the time of the passion of the Saints; the holy Martyrs, Aureus and Justina with their Companions, suffered, under Attila King of the Huns, on the 16th of the Kalends of July, with Marcian and Valentinian as Emperors, with Leo the first of this name presiding over the Apostolic See, in the year after the birth of the Virgin 454, with the son of the Virgin reigning forever, the King of the Martyrs, our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, with God the Father, etc." The same year is noted, as I said, in the margin of the Martyrology of Basel, which being taken from Sigehardus is even hence apparent.
[8] The Consuls indeed noted above, in more correct fasti are noted in the preceding year, rather to be called 451. in which year also Attila died: but the devastation inflicted by him on the Belgic and Germanic provinces, altogether pertains to the year 50 and 51 of that century. Hence he passed into Gaul; and (notwithstanding the grave slaughter of nearly two hundred thousand, which on the Catalaunian or rather Segalaunian plains he suffered from Aëtius the Roman Commander,)
he passes into Italy in the year 52; and at the command of Pope Leo returning into Pannonia, there as I said he died in the year 53. Therefore the chronology of Sigehardus must be corrected, which Arians [were then at Mainz?] and the Passion of the Saints ascribed to the year 51 of the 5th century. But how at that time, or even for many years preceding, in which Aureus could have presided, the Arians could have prevailed at Mainz so much as Sigehardus presumes, imputing to them the exile of the Bishop, I do not sufficiently see; and I much fear, lest, in bringing them in to the slaying of St. Aureus, Trithemius alone led the way, a writer of no great authority for ancient histories; in the Life of St. Maximus, to be examined on the 18th of November, asserting; that his predecessor St. Lucius was killed by the Arians in the year 343, and that he himself suffered very many things from the same. §. II. On Goswin and Sigehardus the Monk writers of the Translation and miracles. The Passion written at Heiligenstadt.
[9] The Finding described in the year 1137 and a booklet of miracles, Molanus, in the Annotations to his Usuard, augmented from the use of various Churches, writes thus: "Of Auraeus (or rather Aureus) and Justina treat briefly the Mainz Breviary and Cochlaeus, in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Mainz, which he subjoined to Walafrid. It is annotated to the said Breviary, that there is said to be carried about a booklet written about the Miracles of Auraeus to Adalbert the Bishop about the year 1137." Someone added this by hand: for nothing such is in the Breviary as printed: by the author Goswin, an eyewitness, [it is given from a Ms.] but that it is true the very little work proves to us, which, long sought in vain at Mainz, we found in the distinguished Passional of the Monastery of Bodeck in the diocese of Paderborn, and transcribed by the hands of those very Religious, by the care of the Reverend Lord Francis Poppenschutz the Prior of the place, John Kloppenborg, the diligent continuator of the Paderborn history after Schaten's death, sent [it]. Sigehardus the Monk of St. Alban, below in the Analecta number 8, names Goswin the Monk as Author, without doubt from a certain tradition among his own brethren of St. Alban. But he himself divides it into three books, professing at the beginning of book 1 his purpose to report only some marvels; nor others; than what he saw with his eyes, and learned by the certain relation of great persons. But there is prefixed a Dedicatory Epistle of Werner the Abbot, by whose command the matter had been written, to Adelbert the Archbishop of the holy See of Mainz.
[10] Whether the Saints [were slain by the Huns, or by the Arians, is doubted;] In that work (which it pleased most to call a booklet) nothing about the life or martyrdom of the Saints is contained; because perhaps Goswin judged that nothing about it could be said certainly enough; or because the opinions of the Religious differed, some with Rabanus holding, that death was inflicted on both by the Huns, while others believed it more probable that the slaying [was] perpetrated amid the Sacred rites by the Arians, which afterward, about the year 1298, the often-named Sigehardus wrote. The people of Heiligenstadt, in the Passion of the holy Aureus and Justinus, not Justina, to be given below, from the parchment codex of that very place, not only hold that they were martyred by the Huns, but at their own place, in that very spot, where Dagobert King of the Franks found their bodies and founded a city, in their honor named Heyligen-stat, likewise, whether at Mainz or at Heiligenstadt that is the city of the Saints or Hagiopolis. And this becomes probable even from Goswin himself, when in number 23 he mentions a Wax-candle in the first revelation described by him, kindled from heaven in glory, which the devotion of the whole people and of the Monks had brought from Heiligenstadt; certainly as to their then also Patrons, and whose bodies they had formerly possessed, if not even then in good part possessed, concerning which below. Meanwhile I seemed to myself to have cause enough, for distinguishing St. Justinus from St. Justina, without fear lest the former be substituted here for the latter, since the Archbishops of Mainz acknowledge him as such: Aribo about the year 1021, Gerlach in the year 1363, and Berthold in the year 1499. Sigehardus indeed mentions some St. Justinus, whose body too is at St. Alban's; but [as] a Confessor and transmitted thither from Heistettin (Heiligenstadt): but of the claim of the people of Heiligenstadt for the body of St. Aureus he does not even make mention; much less of a Legend written among them and accustomed to be recited among the sacred rites: which indeed I would not dare to affirm to have existed already then; but rather fabricated some time after from popular tradition, and not without errors: which being for the present passed over, I pass to the monk of St. Alban, Sigehardus.
[11] Who under the year 1298 wrote, Sigehardus, Serarius, book 2 chapter 17, about to treat of St. Aureus; "In the manuscripts," he says, "which I use, in two is described the Martyrdom of this Saint most copiously, so that it contains Lessons, or (as the one of them calls them) Chapters, 60, besides two Prefaces, of which the former is to the Abbot of St. Alban Conrad, and the whole
College of his Brethren; the other, to the Reader. The former begins, 'To the recruits of the spiritual warfare'; but this, 'With the Prophet exhorting [us] to praise God in the Saints'; the History itself, 'Consubstantial with the Father.' The Author was in the same monastery of St. Alban a Cenobite, treated in book 1 chapter 40. There namely he names him Sigeard or Sighard; but because sometimes by the single letter S [he] is indicated, a new, he says, hand of someone not skilled enough was writing, Sigebartus: but he wrote under the year 1298." He then adds that many things about the births of Mainz and other similar things, of little approved faith, are inserted: wherefore, these omitted, Serarius wished the Reader to be content with those things which in the Mainz Breviary, as more briefly, so more certainly to report he himself judges.
[12] in our transcript counting 20 chapters, That work, from a Ms. copy of the Charterhouse of Cologne, not ancient, for the use of Bollandus John Gamans transcribed in the year 1638, under this title; "Here begins the Life and Passion of St. Auraeus, glorious man, formerly Bishop of the holy See of Mainz, and of St. Justina the Virgin his Sister. And in this Passion is contained also, in great part, the old History of the first constitution or building of the city of Mainz; many things here to be cut away he adds, about the city itself. but also of its destruction and rebuilding and translation, and of many deeds done long before, as will be clear in the course." But this transcript of ours is divided only into 20 Chapters (so that I altogether suspect it must be ascribed to the erring pen of Serarius, that he seems to have counted 60); but the name of the Author neither wholly nor by the initial letter appears anywhere; but a space for writing it is left vacant once and again. Yet his age he sufficiently indicates to those requiring it, when in the Epistle he professes to proceed, from the books of the Chronicles of Godfrey of Viterbo, and of Martin the recent writer of the times, according to their most true reckoning and computation: for Martin the Pole carried his Chronicle up to John Pope XXI and died in the year 1259. But Sigehardus narrates the second Finding, as done in his own time, in the year 1297.
[13] That the Breviary sets forth the History of St. Auraeus more briefly than the Author here, the thing itself speaks; that it does so also more truly, The rest, as regards substance, collected, are held in the Breviary, as Serarius prefaces, I would only admit so far, as there are omitted very many digressions already indicated, by which much husk of error and fabulosity I recognize to be sprinkled in. For as concerns St. Auraeus himself and his Sister; that is reported, though with a longer winding of words, in such a way, that it appears the collector of the Breviary had nothing else before his eyes than Sigehardus's book. Accordingly whatever in the Breviary is of history (of truth, I would not dare to say) beyond that which in his Martyrology Rabanus in few words prescribed, that all flowed from Sigehardus's pen; so that not undeservedly Serarius in the aforecited book 1 chapter 4 said that they are his refuse, from which nevertheless something of gold can be collected by those not most unskilled. This the Author of those Lessons attempted to do, which, composed about the year 1570, the aforepraised Breviary of the Church of Mainz exhibits, and which here to transcribe will not be burdensome. "I. At what time the frequent incursions of the Huns infested the Rhenish provinces, and the Arian perfidy miserably disturbed all the Churches of Christ; it befell among others Blessed Auraeus, Bishop of the Mainz See, most celebrated for doctrine and sanctity, to be driven from his own Pontifical Seat and city: distributed into Lessons, whom into exile followed his Sister Justina, a sacred Virgin, together with certain other orthodox men. But after, by the incursions of the barbarians and infidels, the whole city was overthrown; at last the Bishop, having returned, and gathering his dispersed sheep, began diligently to discharge all the duties of a good Pastor.
[14] II. Since this was, to the Arians, from their inveterate hatred against the Catholic faith, exceedingly grievous; having gained an opportunity, the Bishop, making the sacred rites at the altar, most cruelly with his Sister they slaughter, and into a neighboring well cast headlong. In which when for very many years they had lain buried under the rubble, by Riculf the Archbishop, who presided over the Church in the reign of Charlemagne, they were honorably translated into the monastery of Saint Alban, which he had most splendidly built. III. where there is mention of bodies long incorrupt: In that place too, when the coffins of the Martyrs were unknown to posterity; it happened that the pavements of the monastery, worn by age, were renovated; where among other things the bodies also of the Blessed Auraeus and Justina, …were found … which immediately God illustrated with such great miracles of the Martyrs, and in subsequent times honored with so innumerable benefits of cures and healings toward the human race, through their holy Relics; that not undeservedly the Church of Mainz more religiously venerates such great Patrons, and intercessors with God." Thus far the Breviary, following the relation of Sigehardus, adding something also about the bodies of Saints Auraeus and Justina, as if they had been found thus, as if common nature had had plainly no right in them; which neither Sigehardus; nor Goswin whom he transcribed asserted; nor does it appear at all credible, for many causes: wherefore I expunged it and… noted [it].
[15] Sigehardus himself, moreover, that he invented nothing of his own, can be presumed, because in the Epistle to Conrad the Abbot he thus prefaces: "Of the Saints' stock or homeland, in what place or of what parents they were begotten, if it be asked why the pen does not explain; I answer that the intention of the writer in this stands, and they are written in good faith, namely that he pursue only true and known things, not uncertain and doubtful ones: for of this, by diligent inquiry indeed and much solicitude having investigated, nothing I confess to have found either committed to writing, or to memory (as is wont) of posterity, transmitted by the tradition of the ancients. For although it can be doubtful to none, that of such eminent Martyrs the origin, life, passion or deeds were written down for the memory of those to come; yet by fortuitous chances it could happen that these were either suppressed by the machination of heretics of that same time, or on account of the length of time not diligently handed down, or consumed by the ancient destruction of the City, or certainly by long oblivion deleted, or (if it may be said) by the sloth of the ancients not cared for.
[16] And if anyone ask, what intention of mind impelled my soul to writing; I answer! the miracles wrought at the finding being omitted, I, seeing the church of St. Alban, nay the very mistress of cities, Mainz, dedicated with the blood of Saints Auraeus and Justina the Virgin, decorated by their pledges and sustained by their patronage; and the wonderful miracles being left aside, which through them the Maker of things deigned to work; my soul grievously bore, that such great Martyrs, especially the singular Patrons of our church, were praised by no special veneration of song; and the knowledge of their passion utterly abolished from the memory of men: and therefore I presumed, though insufficient, and gave to the labor a slender vein of talent; that the memory of so excellent a passion, at least in part, might be with you, and pass to posterity; and their glorious solemnity might not lack the due gift of praise. Wherefore I compiled the history of their Passion: but in the Antiphons and Responsories, I wove a song of harmonic sweetness." These things separately described, for the use of the choir in prose and rhythm. with the Notes which they call, in the Antiphonary, whether they have been preserved hitherto, it is of no great concern to scrutinize. The History from the Passional of the church of Saint Alban (as they called it) was read on the day of the festivity and through the Octave; until the tedium of the more prolix reading persuaded, those great volumes being set aside, to form Breviaries of the Histories of the Saints; which were then inserted into those books of the divine Office through the whole year, which we now use.
[17] The same done at Heiligenstadt, What for the people of St. Alban, at Mainz, Sigehardus [did]; at Heiligenstadt, I know not who else had done, long before the new Choir was built there, and so before the year 1278. And he had written a legend in many things very diverse from that which afterward Sigehardus published, about the passion of the Saints Aureus and Justinus, and their bodily presence there. There too was composed (it is uncertain when) an old Office in Antiphons, Hymns, Versicles, Responsories, a Sequence, and Lessons, in which manner it even now is found there, after a certain most ancient Gradual, distinguished by a Rubric. All these things are even now used there, except the Lessons, which now for greater convenience they prefer to take from the printed Breviary of the people of Mainz. The whole matter, as he found it, so John Knackrich described in the year 1693, then Rector of our College there; who left nothing omitted which could be drawn out from the monuments of letters preserved there to instruct us for confirming the cause of his people of Heiligenstadt.
[18] whence the received Legend is here given: Among those things first seems to have been composed a Legend of some sort; from this then taken words, dispersed through the Antiphons, Responsories, etc., but so graceless, that to read them without song would seem altogether unpleasant: wherefore, since these contain nothing which is not read more clearly in the Legend, it pleases to exhibit this one alone; but not without some censure. For the passion of Saints Aureus and Justinus, and the very first finding of the bodies, made in the 7th century, it involves with such circumstances; which would make the whole matter seem fabulous, then the booklet of Miracles wrought at Mainz. unless from elsewhere it became probable, that the Saints near Heiligenstadt were slain, not at Mainz. Under this precaution, in the first place I shall give the Legend of the people of Heiligenstadt, separated from the rest of the Office; then Goswin's booklet about the finding and miracles of Saints Aureus and Justina in the church of St. Alban in the year 1137; and finally the Analecta, first indeed from Sigehardus, pertaining to Mainz; and finally the Analecta. then from the monuments of the people of Heiligenstadt. §. III. The cause of the people of Heiligenstadt for Saints Aureus the Bishop and Justinus the Subdeacon being slain and buried among them, discussed through probable conjectures.
[19] Eisfeldia or Eichsfeldia, a little region, situated on the Borders of Hesse and Thuringia, was long before St. Boniface brought back to the faith of Christ; Heiligenstadt with a church and today, after a varied fortune under various Lords, belongs to the right of the Archbishops of Mainz, rather often either sold or pledged to them.
Its capital is reckoned Heiligenstadt, that is, Hagiopolis, long before the times of St. Boniface, under the Frankish King Dagobert, it is believed to have received that name, when he had been cleansed from leprosy (as they say) in that place, where lay buried certain bodies of Saints, whose tomb he himself elevating, enclosed in a church built above; those Saints there are called Aureus and Justinus, and they are even now the chief patrons of that city: first from Saints Aureus and Justinus whence are found letters of the Senate in the year 1383 in the German language ordaining that the day of Saints Aureus and Justinus our chief patrons be more solemnly and perpetually celebrated to the honor of God, etc., and there are assigned for that end two silver Marks to be given by the townsmen of Heiligenstadt on that day, although however the same church, restored under the Archbishop of Mainz Rabanus, passed into the title of St. Martin, which the Seal of the chapter of canons there then perhaps first instituted also exhibits; then named from St. Martin yet there is preserved to this day a bronze Seal of the Provost of the year 1536 and another of 1591, in which are represented the images of the aforesaid Saints with circumferential letters sufficiently legible, and such is thought to have always been in use by the Provosts. In the same city our Society has a College with the most ancient Church of St. Mary, from whose Rector about the year 1693, the Reverend Father John Knackrich, we received the office indicated in number 17.
[20] The place comprises within its walls only eighty-two acres, but buildings not much more than six hundred, it seems to have been founded by Dagobert of Austrasia yet it is endowed with many privileges as a free city, distant to the East-North-East, from its Metropolis, with which it contends about the prior possession of the Saints themselves, by at least fifty hour-leagues; concerning which, treating from the topography of Matthew Merian, our Henschen, in the Diatribe on the three Dagoberts Kings of the Franks, book 2 chapter 2, judges it probable, that the second of this name, and grandson of the first through St. Sigebert King of the Austrasians, when from Ireland, whither he had been thrust, he returned, began to reign there, having a neighboring castle there, called Altenburg or Old-Borough, whence advancing little by little, stronger in forces, first Alsace and the other Cisrhenane provinces, and finally the whole of Austrasia he recovered, after the year 661. from the year 661 up to 80 a not unhappy King; happier even in the sanctity of his life, if he himself is the one who at Stenay (Satanacum) as a Martyr is venerated, just as in his later revised Diatribe my aforepraised Master judged. To the tradition of the people of Heiligenstadt favors the old custom of the Canons, solemnly proceeding about the feast of St. Mary to the mountain, on which the ruins and walls of the Dagobertine castle are shown: and that Thuringia, to which Eichsfeldia is known formerly to have belonged, obeyed St. Sigebert, sometimes also vindicated by arms against Radulph the duke rebelling against him.
[21] rather than by his grandfather Dagobert I; The people of Heiligenstadt, as that Dagobert of Henschen, buried by an ungrateful oblivion of more than a thousand years among the Historians, always were ignorant of him: so to his grandfather, Dagobert the first, they refer their origin: for the third, if he did not die a boy and without children, yet never touched Thuringia. But this region, ever since the time of the first Kings of France, friendly to that people, received Childeric I, hated by his own, as a fugitive, and for eight years nourished [him] with Basinus the King, until he himself returned into his own kingdom, as St. Gregory of Tours narrates. The same Thuringia Clovis attacked in war, and made tributary to himself; and by Clothar subdued, Thuringia gave him St. Radegund as a captive, soon to be his wife. That Dagobert the first too, when he was still King of Austrasia alone, we know stayed sometime at Mainz, but that he passed into Eichsfeldia, at least in such a way that he had a fixed seat there, a city of his name being founded there and the Altenburg citadel near Heiligenstadt, no reason compels [us] to presume; and so a juster presumption stands for Dagobert II, who longer stayed there and stably, until by the death of his cousin Childeric he was received into peaceful possession of the rest of Austrasia, [and] migrated to Metz the old royal seat of Austrasia. If however anyone should wish to contend for Dagobert the First, that he was the finder of the bodies of the Saints, or at least the founder of the aforesaid citadel, who however could also have been in Eichsfeldia I would not wish with him the saw of disputation to draw back and forth; because I know that very many deeds of the same Dagobert as well as of other old Kings of the Franks throughout Thuringia were passed over in the Annals of the nation, of which not a few indications are held from the monuments or traditions of the places themselves, but for the most part confused as to the times on account of the synonymy of several persons. The Legend indeed names no King, yet of an ancient tradition about Dagobert a witness is Berthold, Archbishop of Mainz, in his diploma of the year 1499, ordering, with the doors opened and the bells rung after the feasts of Christ and of the Saints, the anniversary to be celebrated of the most glorious once Prince Dagobert, the renowned King of the Franks, founder of the Collegiate church of St. Martin of Heiligenstadt; if however this title is so ancient, and no other preceded it, taken from Saints Aureus and Justinus, still the chief Patrons there.
[22] But it is not unlike the truth, even if the writers of Mainz and the Monks of St. Alban themselves always were ignorant of it, or pretended to be ignorant, that St. Aureus with his Subdeacon Justinus was absent from Mainz, occupied in preaching the Gospel in Eichsfeldia; the bodies of Saints Aureus and Justinus being found there; when the Huns, invading Mainz, afflicted with Martyrdom his sister Justina the Virgin, in the mixed slaying of his fellow-citizens gathered in the church, who was afterward honored there in a peculiar coffin by those who, a little after gathered from the dispersion, buried all the slain together on the Mount of Martyrs, now the Mount of St. Alban, there where under his name a church was built in the year 805; but the Huns themselves, in the same impetus of devastation, snatched like a torrent into Eisfeldia, and there finding St. Aureus with Justinus, alike killed them, perhaps in the same manner in which they slaughtered St. Nicasius of Reims and other holy Bishops elsewhere who, the wolves rushing in, went out to meet them for their flock. of one of whom a part may have been brought back to Mainz, Finally it is not incredible that Dagobert, the finder of the Sacred Bodies, transmitted one of them or a part of it to Mainz as to his own proper See: or that Aribo the Archbishop, who in the year 915 brought thither the bodies of the first 10 Bishops of Mainz, and joined to the body of his sister St. Justina, received some part of the body of St. Aureus from Heiligenstadt, and built him a proper tomb; between which and the tomb of his sister Justina he placed the larger chest of the ten Bishops, just as all three chests in the year 1137 were found, under the old pavement, as in number 17 Sigehardus explains.
[23] But these things being posited, there is left equally to both the people of Heiligenstadt and the people of St. Alban St. Auraeus, although the people of Mainz think otherwise. never to the former so brought whole, that of his presence they could not still boast; and the Archbishops of Mainz themselves could grant it to them, especially having still the whole of St. Justinus, just as the people of St. Alban had Justina; who too is often named alone, as chief in the veneration of the citizens, on account of her sepulcher held by them before they received Aureus, so as I said. Sigehardus indeed contradicts what has been said, inasmuch as in number 3 he says that St. Aureus himself too was first buried on the Mount of Martyrs with his sister. But he could have written this, ignorant of the other burial, from his own conjecture; just as, from his own or another's opinion, from the Huns to the Arians he transferred the slaying of the Saints, against the assertion of so much his senior and the same Archbishop Rabanus; which is to be pardoned to the Author writing after such great changes of affairs, with all the ancient monuments lost.
[24] The Relics of St. Justinus whether at Eichstätt Distant from Heiligenstadt by only one summer's day's journey is the Abbey of Hertzfeld, whence in the year 1623 to the church of Eichstätt of our Society were brought the Relics of St. Justinus the Martyr, [as] I said on the 13th of April, where I treated of St. Justinus the Philosopher, number 21; hence a not inept suspicion the aforenamed Rector of Heiligenstadt raises, that those very relics were translated from Heiligenstadt to Hertzfeld, through the Abbot of that place. Whether also at Corbey The same too may have done at Corbey in Saxony the Abbot Wichbald, and received of the Relics of St. Justinus, that which his successor Bodo afterward, and thence at Prague? in the year 1375 sent to Charles IV the Emperor, by a letter, which the Dean of Prague recites in his Phosphorus page 476, professing to hope for help from Charles against the violence of [his] oppressors, "through the most Sacred Relics of St. Justinus the glorious Martyr and Blessed Sophia the venerable Virgin, which to your Excellency," he says, "we send, and profess as true with our pure consciences." Nor are we moved away from this conjecture, because the same Abbot consequently says, that "Louis of pious memory the Emperor studiously constructed that monastery in honor of the holy Martyrs Stephen, Vitus, and Justinus." As if already then the Relics of all three had been brought there: for it is established from the founder's own letters that the monastery was erected in honor of St. Stephen alone, to which however soon was added the Patronage of St. Vitus, his body brought from Rome as was said on the 15th of this month: but as the Abbey from then first began to be called the Abbey of Saints Stephen and Vitus, so the third Patron, of whom no older writing makes mention, could have been added much later to the two former, to which the Abbot Bodo did not advert, since now two centuries had passed.
THE OLD LEGEND
In an old Parchment Ms. of Heiligenstadt, arranged for the use of the Matins Office.
Aureus the Bishop, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Justina his Sister, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Justinus the Deacon, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Many other Martyrs at Mainz and Heiligenstadt (SS.) BHL Number: 0823, 0824
FROM A MS. CHAPTER I.
The Passion adorned rather freely.
[1] Desiring to explain the origin and life of St. Aureus, as I have known [it], and learned from others, and received a from divine revelation; I desire all the devout in Christ to know, Well instructed from boyhood, that they will find his true origin and life in what follows. Aureus, noble by lineage, the only b son of his parents, from infancy imbued with the studies of letters, and wondrously intent on the works of virtues: who when he had completed the times of his adolescence and had been bereaved of both parents, and had attended to the Lord's saying, and bereaved of his parents, distributes his goods, "Unless one renounces all that he possesses, he shall not partake of a part of my kingdom"; distributed all the substance, left by his parents, to pious c uses, the middle part to the building of churches, and the rest to the consolations of the poor.
[2] His house and goods distributed, and all these renounced, he gave himself wholly to God, and withdrew to the parts of the Rhine, and he retires to the desert. seeking the densities of the woods and the caverns of the mountains: which being found, and existing according to the beginning of his will, he gave thanks to God, and there he retired, and led the eremitical life d for several years. Meanwhile he suffered some diabolical temptations: to all of which, protected by the mercy of God, he resisted, and remained in prayers day and night.
[3] But at a certain time, when he had entreated God with prayers, and had given himself to sleep: an Angel of the Lord appeared to him saying to him: Bidden by an Angel to go to Mainz, 'Aureus, friend of God, rise and into the city which is called Mainz go, where the word of the Lord thou mayest pronounce: what thou shalt obtain from it in the future thou shalt perceive.' These things said by him, the Angel departed: Who rose, and according to the Angelic admonition did: he went to the city, proceeded to a certain devout and humble man, with whom he passed the night and illumined him manifoldly with divine colloquies.
[4] The next day approaching, that host rose, and called together all his household; to whom with great joy he said: 'Thanks to God to the full we are not sufficient to render; he profits the citizens by word and example: that, moved by his mercy, he has sent us a man, having an Angelic life and virtue; by the mediation of whose grace we can be saved and the whole land.' With whom blessed Aureus stayed for some time; and them and all flocking to him, he taught many good things, affording eternal life; and many from various languors, with the Lord granting [it], he mercifully freed: who, known to all, bidding farewell to all, returned to the place whence he had come.
[5] Not after much time the Bishop e of the said city died, whom buried as was fitting, and with all the people thinking about another Bishop, they all came together into one: their Bishop having then died and in the election, since they could not become concordant, the elders and more devout of the city determined, that those should elect f for all, who had assembled over the election, and here and there having had diverse discussions had deliberated; and all were agreeing in this and together with one voice were saying: 'If Aureus can be found and had, who lately had been here, a successor is elected; none would be more useful than he.' So among themselves they chose two, to whom with the highest diligence they committed, that they, in a more diligent manner, as two could, should seek him, and he being found, with prayers and supplications hold him to this, that he should take upon himself the care of the Bishopric.
[6] To whom for the investigation of holy Aureus, as in their commission they had received, going, with a great multitude of household and dogs: and when here and there they had crossed woods, and him had not found; at last the dogs found him in a certain cave, and betrayed him by their barking; so the said Commissioners proceeded to g him; and falling to the ground before him, and being sought and found, he is persuaded to admit the burden. they entreated him with diverse prayers that with them he would deign to go to the city; and of the whole people, with the Bishopric vacant, to do the will, of those who with unanimous voice would demand him as Bishop, and as provider of the whole land and Lord. h At last bent by their diverse prayers and supplications, going with them, with such great solemnity and joy he was received by all, as ever any
Bishop. He too, conquered by the prayer of the People, taking upon himself the governance of the Bishopric and at the prayers of all; feeling the Angelic saying then to be fulfilled in himself, with great honor for several years presided over his church, and acquired much people for God by his words, prodigies, and examples.
[7] With the Church of God growing in the time of blessed Aureus, and increasing in all things, to the King and tyrant of the Huns but the Great King of the Huns k at the same time reigning, and destroying that Church with all his might, blessed Aureus was betrayed, that he was a man wholly Catholic in faith. Wherefore the King, inflamed with savagery and fury against him, beginning to go round the lands with great apparatus, destroying all believing in Christ with most savage punishments; brought with Justinus the Deacon when to blessed Aureus he had come, and he with Justinus the Deacon his minister, seized, had been presented to him; on the morrow he ordered them to be shut up in prison, and held under great guard; until with his [men] he should consider, what with them he should do.
[8] The silence of the night coming on, with Aureus and Justinus sitting in prison, he intrepidly preaches Christ to him; an Angel of the Lord appeared, comforting them said; 'Tomorrow when in the sight of the King you appear, what you may speak think not: for in that hour it shall be given you what you ought to speak.' They being presented to the King, and they to sacrifice l to the Idols compelled by diverse threats; they answered the King, and with bold voice said: 'There is no other God, except our Lord Jesus Christ'; beginning to speak to him of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and of its causes; then of the Nativity, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension. These said and others, they held the King until the dinner hour and recited many things to him about the Catholic faith. The King, wearied, wishing to recline, said to them, 'These superstitious words leave off.' And to ten of his servants he said: 'Approach, and reserve them well for me for punishment.'
[9] But the King reclining, and having great delights, the Guards led away Aureus and Justinus, and delivered to prison, and said to them, 'Depart: for we feel that all your words, which you said to the King about Christ, are true: take to flight, and go in peace: for the King we so much do not fear, that we should wish to recede from your sayings. We believe that your sayings have truth, and that every saying about our Idols induces falsity.' Soon the saints comforted them in this, he is freed and dismissed by the guards: and with immense joy were saying: 'In this we do not doubt, that now with you is our Lord Jesus Christ: and him, if in faith of this kind you persevere, who is the true God, face to face you shall see.' So the Guards firmly stood in this purpose, and to the King's court returned: but the Saints withdrew, and as God disposed for them, did.
[10] After the King reclined, he ordered Aureus and Justinus to be presented to him; whom therefore he orders to be killed, immediately the ministers running to the Guards, announcing the King's command to them, the Guards went to the King, and intrepidly said to him: 'The men committed to our custody we made to depart, because we knew them to be just; and therefore together with them we have become servants of Jesus Christ, because he is the true God, which in truth cannot be denied.' Then the King for a long hour from excessive fury could not speak.
At last with great vehemence and a loud voice he said to his [men]: 'These insane and delirious ones quickly take away, beat with clubs, and slay with the sword: so ordering that they appear to no one of men living.' Who fulfilled the King's command and beheaded them for the name of Jesus Christ.
[11] The King thinking about these things which had happened, and not knowing what he should do; called to himself his Prefect, one is sent to investigate the fugitives. a tyrannical man and full of all savagery, saying to him: 'Choose for thyself men suitably fitting and obedient to thy commands; and pursue the magi who deceived us, and the whole land by their deceits to a malicious sect led: and rest not day and night, until thou find them: and them being found, to sacrificing to our Gods compel them with dire punishments. But if they refuse, and in their sect persevere, them with diverse tortures thou shalt punish, and with the most shameful death which thou canst devise condemn them; that to others they may give an example, lest they presume to do such things: and return not to me, unless thou shalt have totally fulfilled a command of this kind.'
[12] The Prefect did what the King ordered: and took to himself a great household, He, having seized them at Rustenfeld, going from city to city, from village to village; and always for two, clad in such garments, asked, and this for five days continued, and yet profited nothing. At last he proceeded to a certain noble, having upon m Rustenveld a decent dwelling, with whom he passed the night; who, being asked by him about the aforesaid, said: 'Today two came to my allod (estate) Rustenveld, who were clad similarly; whether they are those about whom you ask, I know not.' The Prefect said, 'This I wish to investigate'; and immediately went down to the Allod, and found them there. Soon he led them captive with himself to the lodging, and delivered them through the night to his servants to be guarded.
[13] But the next day to Aureus and Justinus the Prefect said: 'The King has commanded me, under peril of my body, in vain he persuades [them to venerate the idols.] that I should investigate from you whether to our gods you are willing to sacrifice, and to lay aside your erroneous sect about Christ: and if you do this, you ought to be great in the Court of the King: but if you are unwilling to do it, that I ought to condemn you with the most grievous torments. Now immediately choose what you wish to do.' Who answered him: 'Your gods are deaf and dumb, able by themselves to do nothing, but accomplishing all things by demoniacal operation: therefore we wish to have no communion with them, neither by sacrifices nor by prayers; but our Lord Jesus Christ we wish to serve, who has power to destroy and save the souls of men.'
[14] Therefore he is shod by him with razors, The Prefect, seeing that Aureus and Justinus could not be bent merely by words to sacrifice to the Gods, and to renounce Christ; devised a great torment; by which to compel them to do this he wished. Four great shoes he procured to be made, into which he ordered most sharp n razors to be inserted, thinking that they would so abhor this torment, that from Christ they should recede. So the shoes he set before them and, ordering them to put them on, said: 'These Shoes put on, and in them walk; or to our gods as to true gods sacrifice.' Soon they, in the name of Jesus Christ putting on the shoes, in them walking upon the razors, went through a long way, and without any injury remained.
[15] The Prefect, his torment, which he had devised, profiting nothing, and he intimately grieving at this, conceived another punishment, to be inflicted on Aureus and Justinus. He had prepared two iron helmets o of extended plates of iron fabricated crosswise in the manner of a gridiron: they are tortured with fiery helmets, which he ordered to be put into the fire, and beyond measure to be kindled with the heat of the fire: which wondrously kindled he said to them: 'By the heat of these helmets you must perish, unless to Christ your Lord you renounce.' Who, intrepid, answered the Prefect and said: 'From Christ we will not recede, because for his name we are ready to die; who for our salvation underwent death hung on the cross.' Then the burning helmets upon them he placed and with a hammer made them to be struck upon the Saints: but they remained unharmed, and the helmets extinguished fell to the ground.
[16] The Prefect, moved by the aforesaid and exceedingly disturbed, had before his eyes what the King had commanded him: and they are exposed to the beasts through the night. To Aureus and Justinus he said: 'It is nothing that you do, that you so exercise magic arts, since by them you think to escape death: know that by them you incur death: do you not know that here all around are Woods and all deserted places, in which are fierce beasts knowing to spare no one: of whom you shall be the food, unless you acquiesce in me in things often repeated to you.' Who answered, 'Magic arts we know not, but the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ through all things operates in us, whose servants we are: and therefore thy torments we do not fear.'
[17] The Prefect said, 'Your temerity makes you perish.' Then he led them to a wood, where it seemed to him to be a horrible place, and had them there fastened p to two trees, with chains and fetters by smiths, placing two guards upon a tree: who should watch through the whole night, that they might see the destruction of them, guards being set to observe; and recite this to him in the morning. But the night coming on, the Saints signed themselves with the sign of the holy Cross. Then infinite beasts of diverse kinds came together before them, lying peacefully among themselves and with them, moving altogether no insolences. Two great wax candles also, in a wondrous manner formed and adorned, before them all night burning stood. All these things the Guards sitting in the tree saw.
[18] The Prefect rising very early, how it had befallen Aureus and Justinus, but when thus too they had been preserved, desiring to know with his whole heart; when he came to them, all the beasts which had been there, in a mild manner he beheld depart; and much was he amazed, that none of them was harmed by them. Then he called together all those existing with him, and with moved mind said: 'By Hercules! if I should consent, these by their Jesus would delude me unto infinity. I advise that they be quickly beheaded, and that to our Lord the King we return. I should grieve that the lord King himself should know, that for so long a time by them I have been deluded: this with him I would never recover.' Therefore to impose an end I wish'; in this all with him agreed and said, 'let these things be done.'
[19] The Prefect ordering Aureus and Justinus to be loosed from the iron bonds, and the smith at his command doing this; they are beheaded: he set up one servant, who prepared his sword, to behead them. Then they asked to be granted them, that they might adore their lord Jesus Christ. This was granted them. They said; 'We ask, Lord Jesus Christ, that we come to thee, and that every man, who to us every day shall show honor in thy name, may rejoice in the prosperity of body and goods r and in the Salvation of his soul.' To whom from above it was answered; 'What you have asked is heard': and with their heads inclined, they were beheaded with two strokes of the sword. s Immediately the Prefect and all the others, the heads taken up, withdrew; and the bodies they left to the birds and beasts to be devoured. Then the Colonus (farmer) of Rustenveld, and one of the Saints' servants, took the bodies and devoutly buried them.
[20] The Prefect withdrawing with joy, and to his Lord the King returning, on the way said to his servants: as also the guards, confessing what they had seen. 'I am not sufficient to marvel at these foolish men, that they more gladly wished to die miserably, than to live with great honor.' At these things the Guards, who by night in the tree sat, with unanimous voice said: 'Truly, Lord Prefect, never do we wish to deny these things: They were just and holy and all [is] true which about our Lord Jesus Christ they said. That night, when in the tree above them we sat, signs great we saw and heard. We saw two most beautiful wax candles, not made by the hands of men, before them all night burning, and from themselves giving not human splendor: them too we heard through the whole night with prayers with glad mind adore God, and Angels answering them to their prayers. Also beasts of the woods innumerable which were of diverse kinds, before them like sheep all night lay. Therefore from Jesus Christ their Lord we will not recede: but his servants we wish to die.' The Prefect immediately said to one servant; 'Kill them with the sword; if with these tales to the King we should come, all ruined we should be': so these two were killed for the name of Jesus Christ.
[21] But the Prefect when to his lord the King he had come, and all by him with Aureus and Justinus perpetrated had recited to him, The Prefect returned to the King with the heads, and to him their heads had presented; the King in all things which had been done much commended him; and exalted him to a higher dignity through a more solemn office, and said to the whole Court: 'All things which to this Province moved us to come, according to all our will have been accomplished, therefore to [our] parts we wish to return. In the name of Jove let us go.' Who when to their Region they had come, and with prosperous successes had sacrificed, the Prefect too having made great boasting about his exaltation, which had befallen him on account of the condemnation of the aforesaid Saints; it happened by divine permission, that the Prefect himself and his whole household, and increased in honors, he perishes badly. who were guilty in the passion of the holy Martyrs Aureus and Justinus, with all in the Court of the King present seeing, and fearing, perished by an evil death.
ANNOTATIONS D. P.
the means whence the author thought to win greater faith for himself, makes him suspect of a more culpable fiction: who even here speaks in the first person, as if he himself the old man were the one who narrated these things to the Queen, as if revealed to him divinely after so great a flow of time. b The title of "only son" does not exclude a sister: yet our Knackrich doubts whether St. Justina should at all be believed the carnal sister of Aureus; and to this he adduces the old Catalogue of the Relics of Corbey, among which are held, "Notable Relics of St. Aureus and Justina the sister of [his] society"; and he suspects that perhaps a sister-Woman is indicated, such as the Apostles led about, 1 Cor. 9; but far be it that an example which not even in the East long held, and which the Apostle of the gentiles was unwilling to use, that he might be freer, we should suspect to have passed to the Apostles of Germany after so many centuries. Rather I will think the writer of the Catalogue meant to say, that those Relics are of some of the society of Aureus and Justina the sister. c To distribute one's goods to pious uses [is] most ancient.
r I have already rather often warned that prayers of dying Martyrs of this kind are not read except in Passions of an inferior age and faith: as also those voices from heaven, are most rare in true and genuine Acts.
s I believe the Author invented this, because he wrote those things when at Heiligenstadt the heads were no longer found, having been long since translated elsewhere.
CHAPTER II.
The finding and elevation of the sacred bodies: the first foundation of the Heiligenstadt church.
[22] But after much time, when as it were the memory of Aureus and Justinus had been extinguished, The leprous King of the Franks, there arose a King of the Franks, a great Lord of the Christians, and gracious: who, when he had reigned a long time, and all things had subjugated to himself; it happened by divine permission, that he was stricken with the infirmity of leprosy. Which when he had felt in himself, he said to all his [men], that he wished to set out on a journey abroad. So the kingdom to his son and to his Secretaries to be ruled he committed in all things until he should return from the journey, and so he withdrew with the Queen his wife. And when for some time they had gone round the lands, and a place existing according to their will had not found, at last, by divine grace disposing, he journeys with his wife as far as Altenburg. that they should find what was fit for them on account of what followed; to a place which is called Altenburg they came: where with all their household they rested; there finally they made a decent dwelling, and a chapel in honor of God, of the Virgin Mary, and of blessed Peter the Apostle they constructed.
[23] But at a certain time, when the King was at the hunt, he came to a pleasant place in the wood, where stood beautiful grasses, where resting in a pleasant place, and wetted in hand and face with dew, which were mixed with diverse flowers, wondrously fragrant with good odors; where beyond measure he delighted to rest, and to sleep a little. He believed that if he did not do this, he must die: and so to the grasses he laid himself, and slept a little. And when he had awakened, and had extended his hand beside him to the grasses; the same drenched and moistened with dew, he smeared himself with it on the face; and immediately he rose, and to his dwelling returned. And to his consort the Queen with glad mind he said; 'A shorter and sweeter sleep I have taken, than ever in the days of my life I did.' The Queen answered: 'Well I believe, because in your hand and in your face I see this well, which by God's grace are cured, and lack all infirmity; for which let us render thanks to God and all things to him commit.'
[24] The Queen thinking about these things which had happened to the King, and afterward in his whole body, and reckoning that they had proceeded from divine grace; immediately spoke to the King with these words: 'I ask, my Lord King, that you tell me, whether the place where you slept you can find again.' To this the King answered: 'Well I wish to find it'; and her immediately with himself to the place he led, and showed her all. Immediately the Queen judged all, and to the King with these words commanded: 'Quickly all your garments lay aside, and into the dew immerse yourself, with the dew smearing yourself everywhere, no part of your body omitting. he is thoroughly healed, and orders the place to be called Heiligenstadt. The King did what he was bidden: and soon from the infirmity totally was purged. The King, seeing and feeling himself to be cured, reckoned [it] a great miracle; devoutly rendered thanks to God, and with glad mind also said: 'Truly, either here Saints lie: or this place is holy. I wish therefore that this place forever be called Holy-Place: or Place-of-the-Saints'; then both, the King and the Queen, to their son joyful returned, and that they had fulfilled the vow of the pilgrimage they said.
[25] He understands that there lie the bodies of Saints, One night, when the Queen was sleeping, a divine voice about a certain old devout man said to her: 'Ask him how the King was cured; this he will tell you, in truth not feigned.' The Queen, as in the night she had heard, the day coming on, questioned the old man; and yet first all, that had happened to the King, she recited to him. But the old man, knowing this address, made to the Queen, to proceed from God; straightway to her the life of the blessed Martyrs Aureus and Justinus written above, word for word, h declared. Which done, to the Queen herself he said: 'These two, Aureus and Justinus, in that place where the King was cured, for the name of Jesus Christ were Martyred; and there still they lie buried, through whom, with the Lord assenting, the King was cured of the plague of Body i and soul. And if in my counsels you acquiesce, on account of this to God and to those Saints a special service you shall show.'
[26] and over them he builds a church, The Queen explaining all to the King, the King answered her: 'I believe all that you have told me to be true: and thanks to God I render for his mercy.' Thereupon about the service to be shown to God and to the Saints he thought: and so them he procured to be canonized k; and in the place of the Sepulcher a Church to be built he erected; over which a Provost and twelve Canons he set, to whom for sustenance allods, tithes, and many Goods he gave: and to them he enjoined and said: 'Buildings l build, and the place to your whole power improve.' So the Provost and Canons built a church, and beside it a city, then aid and labor to this furnished, that the rustics of the Village which was called Zuenchem: m which at a small distance beside the aforesaid church was situated: and all others coming from all lands, and he founds a Chapter and a city. built the city, and to it the name Heiligenstadt, which the King had named, imposed. So the church of Heiligenstadt and the city were founded by the aforesaid Lord King, whose soul n may rest in holy peace. Amen.
[27] After these things the Reverend in Christ Father and Lord, the devout Archbishop o of Mainz, came to Heiligenstadt in his own person. Who when he had seen and known all, The Archbishop of Mainz confirms what was founded. which by the Lord King aforesaid, with regard to God and the holy Martyrs Aureus and Justinus, had been founded and established; he much praised and approved them, and freely confirmed them: a great Indulgence p also to all the Benefactors of the said Church of Heiligenstadt out of the mercy of God almighty, with whom he himself reigns, he bestowed. Also to the said church's Lords the Provost and Canons many privileges, liberties, tithings, and other q goods, with regard to God and the blessed Martyrs and the divine worship, he handed over and granted; where to God day and night services are made. To whom is honor, praise, and glory through the infinite ages of ages.
Amen.
ANNOTATIONS D.P.
Dagobert I had sons, St. Sigebert by Ragnetrude, whom in the year 632, three years old, he constituted king.
p Already often said, that Indulgences to those visiting or aiding pious places, were not begun to be given before the 11th century; but altogether the Author seems to have confused with the first foundation, the restoration made after the year 1276, to promote which Wernher the Archbishop, on the 17th of July, bestowed 11 days, nevertheless holding valid also those which in the same year on the 24th of April other Archbishops and Bishops had contributed to such a work or might yet bring to be granted: where chiefly regard is had to those, which for the subsidy of those going around through the dioceses and territories, in that year they had bestowed, or were to bestow, as from the bulls to be set forth below will be clear.
q It is written to me, that from the histories of Thuringia it is held, that Otto Duke of Thuringia, created Emperor, to his natural son William, whom he had made in the year 954 Archbishop of Mainz to be elected, conferred in property entirely Thuringia and Hesse, whence Knackrich suspects this to be that devout Archbishop, who confirmed the Dagobertine foundation, and that no other is understood by the Author. But what if St. Willigis be understood, who, as toward the end of the 10th century at Mainz dedicated a new Cathedral to St. Stephen; so also, the Heiligenstadt one restored in his time, named [it] from St. Martin. Certainly Knackrich thinks it did not earlier have this name. For the rest, whether this one or that was so liberal toward that church, it appears how long after he wrote, who knew no one to name distinctly.
CHAPTER III.
On the exhumation and translation of the sacred Relics of Aureus and Justinus.
[28] God glorious in his Saints, willing to do grace and mercy in the honor of the holy Martyrs Aureus and Justinus to men: The ministers of the church, a nocturnal light having been seen in it granted great wax candles burning in night-time to appear, and a most sweet song to be heard, in the Choir of the Heiligenstadt church, old, small, b and low. Which when the ministers and servitors of the church many times had seen and heard, they reckoned it worthy to reveal this to their Lords. To the Lord Dean and Chapter to reveal. And at a certain time, while the Lords themselves were set in the Chapter place, the ministers themselves approached them, and all that they had seen and heard told them. Concerning which the Lords c manifoldly were solicited, thinking in diverse ways and not knowing what this might mean to them. And when with such meditations for some time among themselves they had been occupied, they indicate the matter to the Canons. and in joy, sadness, and fear had persisted; at last to one of them very devout a divine voice on a certain night in sleep said; 'It is time that the most sacred Relics of the Martyrs Aureus and Justinus, who in the Choir lie buried, secondarily, on account of the storming d of the city, in the place in which they shed their blood for the name of Jesus Christ, be exhumed, and that with worthy praises above the earth by men they be venerated. Therefore hasten, and delay not, and omit not; but with thy Brethren arrange, and procure, that all things, told thee about those Relics, by completing be consummated.'
[29] These, ordered to dig up the holy bodies again, Which revelation the same Lord immediately in the morning told his Brethren, and the Lord Dean, and Chapter: because for then there was not in the church any e Vicar. Which Lords immediately with unanimous consent conceived the plan of seeking such Relics by digging: and so beginning to dig, for several days in vain they labored, finding utterly nothing. But on a certain day, namely on the fifth weekday before the feast f of Walpurgis, at the hour g of the Shambles (Macellum), a stone sarcophagus wondrously and plainly cut, they find them on 30 April. as it appears and perpetually h will appear, to all wishing to see [it], they found (of which sarcophagus there is no indication whether it was made by the hands of men) in which the Relics of the holy Martyrs Aureus and Justinus they found: which to touch and translate they did not dare: but them for their superiors i and worthier ones to be exhumed they reserved: guards also armed they appointed, who day and night guarded them, until they should disclose, by setting forth these things to their superiors.
[30] Which done, the day of exhuming and translating the Relics, namely the day k of the Martyrs Aureus and Justinus next following, was fixed generally for all. The translation is arranged for 17 June, On which day coming the Venerable in Christ Fathers and Lords, Bishops, Abbots l, Provosts, Deans, Canons, Plebans (parish priests) m, and Religious innumerable came together, and the office of Mass humbly and devoutly and with solemn voice they chanted. the alms are multiplied, Which completed, the Relics of the Saints, the Te Deum n and other devout praises singing, they translated; and to a new shrine o, for this prepared, deposited them; and a great Indulgence, and many Fraternities and Karenae (penance-relaxations), to all the Benefactors of the Church bestowed. a new choir is constructed.
[31] All too who were present with a most sweet and unwonted odor were filled, all also the sick who had come together, with whatever languors they had been entangled, the blind, deaf, dumb, contracted, paralytic, lame, possessed, all were cured. So great a people too had come together from all the ends of the earth, that it could not be contained in the city, but the whole field between the city and Paphenbruele, and the little hill Steygere was full p of peoples and men. Also innumerable were there the preachers, who in the city and outside the city preached, the people offering very much, in jewels golden, silver, in horses and other things, so that the Collectors, asked and deputed for this; could not fully receive and take the offerings: but whoever with regard to God wished to do [so], stretched out his cap, and took it immediately full of money and other offerings. And so to such an extent was it offered, that of such offerings, and others afterward with regard to the holy Martyrs Aureus and Justinus offered, a solemn Choir, perpetually to endure, was constructed: in which to God are made day and night services, who may save us through the eternal ages. Amen. q
ANNOTATIONS D. P.
p Thus, from a Ms. Chronicle of Mainz, indicates Serarius page 837, that in the year 1239, at the dedication of the greater church, restored by Siffrid the Archbishop, so great a multitude of peoples had come together, that neither the city itself nor the field could hold all; but across the Rhine at a castle and on the islands stations had to be made. About Pfaffenbule and Steygere questioned, Knackrich, what places they were, answered that the first indeed seems to be that hill on which had been built the church of St. Martin, where the bodies were found; and around which even now stand the houses of the Canons, whom thence the common people call "die Pfaffen auf dem Berg" (the priests on the hill): the other is that on which stands the church of St. Mary now assigned to our Society: for it is, says Knackrich, a three-hilled city, Heiligenstadt, and "Steygere" in German sounds "slope": as also "Buil" means hill, whence more correctly it will be written Pfaffenbuil.
Because here there is no mention of the whole church afterward restored, therefore these things I reckon written before the year 1276, in which it began to be treated of: but not much earlier. But if that Choir did not burn in the famous fire of the year 1333, probably the same still stands.
Here consequently was to be placed the Addition about the Old and new chest of the Saints and other reliquaries: but by some chance passed over it finds its place in the Appendix, of which it will form §5.
THE FINDING AND MIRACLES OF SAINTS AUREUS AND JUSTINA,
at Mainz in the Church of St. Alban. By Goswin, a Monk there, From a Ms. of the Monastery of Bodeck in Westphalia.
Aureus the Bishop, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Justina his Sister, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Justinus the Deacon, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Many other Martyrs at Mainz and Heiligenstadt (SS.) BHL Number: 0825
BY THE AUTHOR Goswin, FROM A MS.
DEDICATORY EPISTLE.
To the venerable in Christ Father Adalbert, Archbishop of the holy See of Mainz, and Legate of the Apostolic See; Wernher, minister of St. Alban though unworthy, with all committed to him, wishes always the grace of him who for all laid down his soul.
It is expedient for salvation and truth, that in the salutary meetings of the pious Pastor the devotion of the subject flock should rejoice. He indicates and communicates joy, Our joy therefore, we believe to be your joy, over all which he has shown us, who does wonders great alone. For what we have read written and heard, "My Father until now works, and I work," fulfilled we see and venerate; and these things to your and in our times, upon whom the ends of the ages have come, to be done we not a little rejoice. John 5:17 For the householder, who brings forth from his treasure new and old; who says, "Nothing covered which shall not be revealed" (thanks to him), what he taught, by himself he seems to have fulfilled. Luke 12:2 Since when the pavements of our church, worn by age, by the expense of certain faithful we were studying to renew, there were found coffins unequal both in quality and in quantity: concerning [the things found under the pavement of the church] which, first counsel being taken with the Brethren, and with the highest devotion, the rite of divine worship premised, opening, we found a treasure, precious above all gold and topaz: namely the bodies of the holy Martyrs Aureus and Justina, of which a certain part reduced to dust, the saying which said, "Earth thou art and into earth thou shalt go," confirmed; but a certain part, ruddier than old ivory, was still moist with blood, as if the martyrdom were present; but a certain part, white as a lily, in the bodies of Saints Aureus and Justina; presented the glory of the future resurrection. What their merits are in heaven, the things soon following testify, and the miracles which daily still there happen. These things to your Paternity to be made known we have judged worthy; among prayers and thanksgivings, which for such great benefits to God, grateful, we pay, your entrance to us desiring, that what less our humility avails, the authority of so great a Pastor may commend such great patronages, and he invites [him to the Translation.] to the advancement of our and all's salvation, and to the glory of those of whom we speak; but to the praise of him, who through all ages [is] blessed God.
PROLOGUE OF THE AUTHOR
The Prophet testifies, filled with the Holy Spirit, that God is wonderful in his Saints. Ps. 67:36. We testify also, though frail, Although the saints predestined from eternity having the pledge of the same Spirit, that great is the power of him, who first and alone from the beginning founded all things alone. But with him since there is no transmutation nor shadow of vicissitude; yet by his wisdom, of which there is no number, before the times he predestined those whom, at the end of the times called and justified, for his at last and our salvation's advancement, he wondrously glorified: to whose immortal memory, known to God and men, nothing can be added by him to [their glory;] for us to add something, of temerity we confess it to be. But there occurs to us that wicked servant in the Gospel, for the gain of one talent not brought back judged by the Lord; and that to conceal the secrets of the King [is] glorious; but to cover splendid deeds with silence, is no less perilous. Since therefore in the temple of God, which is the Church, not only vials, but also cups, namely great and small sacraments of knowledge, are contained, there is no doubt; measuring ourselves, and mindful of obedience, which is preferred to sacrifices, yet obeying the command of superiors, of that great King's table, haughtiness laid aside, to those desiring to partake, in this proposal of our littleness, not a vial, but a cup we offer: and the gifts of proud Kings being omitted, namely gold and silver, purple and fine linen; with the poor of Christ, the hairs of goats, fitted to their places, into the treasury we put. To this gives our pusillanimity confidence, the frequent and devout supplication of sublime persons, that is of our Church's Father Wernher, and of the most glorious son of Mother Church and Provost of the Greater house Henry, and of the Dean Lord Hartmann, and of the Cantor Gotzbert, and of the others of the same Church, the Lords, especially our Brethren and Lords: with whom if (which be far) we incur any negligence, very easily we hope to merit pardon, he undertakes the writing, since by the long time of our intercourse with them they have known our unskillfulness. But may he be present, who breathes where he wills and when he wills, who opens and unlocks all things fortified and closed; who, informing the roaring of a brute animal with human speech, subjected the laws of his nature to his omnipotence.
We must rejoice therefore, nay all the faithful must, and he invites all to rejoice together, because the Lord makes his mercy with us. For the Son coeternal with the eternal Father, after, conceived of the Holy Spirit, and born of the perpetual Virgin, overshadowed by the power of the Most High, [and] having suffered, been buried, consummated all that is of man without sin; and the empire of death destroyed, rising, leading our captivity captive, placed [it] at the Father's right hand; when, iniquity superabounding, the charity of many grew cold; and, cruelty raging, impiety touched impiety, as blood touches blood; that it has been fulfilled there is no one who doubts, "If a grain of wheat falling into the earth shall have died, it brings much fruit." John 12:24 To some indeed, nay to us, not to God, innumerable is the number of the Saints, to whom it is said, "Who ministers to me let him follow me"; who with the highest devotion embracing Christ, founded in faith, strengthened in hope, with happy constancy, delivered their bodies to punishments: of whom, because it is written, "The Saints shall possess in their land double"; namely that land of which the Psalmist says, "I believe to see the goods of the Lord in the land of the living"; each with white stoles, that is glorified with the immortality of the soul, from under the altar, for the vengeance of their blood, to the Lord cry out; but for an answer, over the expectation of their brethren, the immortality of the flesh, as it were a second stole, with happy desire they await. and 26, Is. 61:7, Ps. 26:13 Whose spirits, since they are always before the Lord, not of all yet, but of certain ones the bodies, in the revelation of these Saints he who was able produced into the midst; which, commended to it, as in a sweet bosom, the earth had hidden, mother of all: and those whom, having suffered for him, he willed to be partakers of his glory, to those believing in him, according to the quality of their merits and the variety of times, he constituted Patrons. But since each nation and people glories in the special patronage of its own Saints, with ampler joy thou must exult, O prince of provinces and mistress of nations, Mainz, and by miracles, to be divided into three books. for the manifested glory of thy great Pastor Aureus and his sister Justina the Virgin and Martyr: of whose virtues, signs, and miracles, whether those which either in their finding or in the translation of their Bodies, or afterward were done or are done; setting down a few of many, and consulting the utility of readers, the Chapters of each we briefly subjoin; and dividing in the name of the Trinity this small work, into three sections of books, we take care to refresh the kindly Reader's mind.
THE OLD DIVISION OF THE WORK
Here begins the first Book of the miracles of Saints Aureus and Justina, whose Passion is kept on the 16th of the Kalends of July; but the Finding on the 5th of the Ides of May. CHAPTER I. When and how the bodies of the Saints were found. II. On the miracle, which happened before their finding. III. One miracle, after their finding; how a boy, from birth vexed with quartan fevers, received health. IV. On a woman, blind for 5 years, [who] is illumined. V. On a woman, whose contracted hand was straightened. VI. On a woman, freed from a flux of blood. VII. On a certain lame man, raised up on a Wednesday. VIII. On two paralytic women, cured on the same day. IX. On a girl, bent and straightened. X. On a man, who from a stone, which he carried in his jaw, was freed. XI. On a matron, who lost a golden necklace, and found [it]. XII. On the miracles, which happened on the day of Pentecost. XIII. On the signs, which were done on the Birthday of the Saints. XIV. On a matron, who, laboring with paralysis for 4 years, was freed. XV. On a lame man, raised up at the same hour. XVI. On a woman, who, healed, gave no thanks. XVII. On him who vowed a vow, and did not fulfill [it]. XVIII. On the miracles, which happened on the festivity of St. Alban. XIX. On two blind men, illumined on the Birthday of St. John the Baptist. XX. On a wax candle, kindled on the festivity of the same. XXI. On a wax candle kindled, on the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul. XXII. On a wax candle kindled, on the feast of St. Benedict. XXIII. Likewise on a wax candle kindled. XXIV. On him who, clad in a tight tunic, was corrected and freed. XXV. On a servant, whose hand stuck to a ball. XXVI. On the same servant whose hand a little knife clung to. XXVII. On three women, healed of a similar languor. XXVIII. On a boy, drowned and revived. XXIX. Likewise on a boy drowned and revived. XXX. On three fettered persons, and freed by the intercession of the holy Virgin. XXXI. On a certain bound person, and absolved through the merits of the sacred Virgin. XXXII. On two brothers, wondrously healed. XXXIII. On a certain blind man, illumined.
XXXIV. On a blind girl, illumined. XXXV. On a boy, illumined by the faith of [his] parents. XXXVI. On a woman, who received the health of a broken arm. The first Book is finished; there begins the Prologue of the second book. — Num. 40
CHAP. 1. On a demoniac, wondrously cured through the merits of the Saints. II. On a woman, freed there from the falling sickness. III. On a man unjustly condemned, and freed from hanging. IV. On a woman, freed there from a demon. V. On two Brothers, held in captivity. VI. On a wax candle on the Nativity of the Lord divinely kindled. VII. On a boy, struck by [his] father. VIII. On a boy, freed from the swallowing of a ring. IX. On a boy, gnawed in the face by a pig, and restored by the merits of the Saints.
There begins the Prologue to the Third Book. — Num. 50 CHAP. I. On a revelation of the Saints. II. On a woman, illumined on the feast of the Saints. III. On a rustic whose hand a tool-handle clung to. IV. On a certain woman illumined there. V. On a certain person acting against a vow, and therefore by just judgment failing in sight. VI. On a certain contracted person there raised up and healed. VII. On a girl, freed there from a demon. VIII. On another girl, cured of a debility. IX. On a thief, who brought back a horse on the third day. X. On a paralytic woman cured on the feast of St. Victor. XI. On a certain hanged [man], and through the merits of the Saints found still alive on the third day. XII. On a certain contracted person, there raised up and healed. XIII. On a mother and daughter, the one cured of a demon, the other healed of a debility of body. These we, after our manner, intending to divide into fewer Chapters, to the first book two Chapters; to the second and third, two others we will assign.
CHAPTER I.
On the finding of the Saints, and the miracles before and after it, wrought through the next ten days.
[1] Before the year 1137, on 3 May, In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred thirty-seven, in the Indiction fifteenth; on the fifth of the Ides of May, when in the church of St. Alban the Martyr, the pavements worn by age, by the expense of certain faithful were being renewed; there were found coffins, both in quantity and in quality unequal; and in them bodies, of which a certain part into dust had been reduced, a certain part ruddier than old ivory, still moist with blood, as though at present they had suffered, appeared; but a certain part white as a lily presented the glory of the future resurrection. a Of these therefore what their merits are in heaven, the things soon following testify, the bodies of the Saints were found; and what daily still there happen, the marvels. Of which some (for no hand or tongue suffices for all) here to insert we have judged worthy. Nor indeed others, than what with our eyes we have seen, and by the certain relation of great persons have learned. Which if, on account of the barking envy, we should bring forth into the midst, without doubt every contradiction of the infidels will fall mute. But it pleases first to report, for the confirmation of our discourse, what we have ascertained was done, before the revelation of those of whom we speak.
[2] It was a solemn day, which is called the day of the Palms, b and to the common joy of so great a solemnity, on Palm Sunday, a certain [man sitting upon the sepulchers of the Saints,] by the accustomed custom no small multitude of the city had come together. And while the solemnities of so great a day were being performed, and each, in his own places, most reverently content seemed; a certain one of the people climbed upon the sepulcher of the Bishops, who there are buried; and, his feet let down over the sepulcher c of the Virgin and Martyr, rejoicing, sat. And behold suddenly prostrated on the ground, with a wondrous sound he fell upon his face; clearly demonstrating, that such a seat he did not merit. He stopped at once the voices of those singing psalms in the Choir, the noise and clamor of each sex running together: and shaken off by an invisible hand; for all who were present, terrified with amazement at what had happened, come together: and reckoning [it] the cause of some sudden infirmity, lifted by their hands, outside the threshold of the church they carry [him]. Who when, water sprinkled on his face by the hands of those handling [him], as is wont to be done, scarcely at last revived; the bystanders solicitously ask, what was the cause of so sudden a fall. He relates that he greatly marvels, that they about this, which with him they had seen and heard, inquire. a [woman having gone out thence narrates that this was done.] Namely that an excellent person, beautiful in form, in becoming clothing, had gone out of the tomb; and a blow, which scarcely any mortal would bear, had given him. Which heard, the conscience of all was terrified, and thereupon for that place and the Saints buried there reverence grew, destined by the merits of the Saints to have no end. But lest the prolixity of the discourse generate weariness for the hearer, these things briefly forepalated, the merits of the holy Martyrs recounting, though unworthy, to our purpose let us return: that through those, whom by writing true things as suppliants we venerate, of eternal glory we may merit to be made partakers.
[3] But afterward a boy suffering quartan [fever from birth is healed:] The first miracle which after the Finding of the Saints was done gave us and many others no small increase of gladness. For a certain woman had and grieved over a boy born of her, from birth with quartan fevers miserably vexed. To whom, as to her own bowels, the mother condoling; and in him, who does not forsake those confiding in him, placing her hope; upon the sepulcher of the holy Martyrs, whose merits she had now learned by the relation of many, to be cured she laid [him]. Soon therefore the pains being put to flight, before many sounding the praises of Christ, him sound she lifted up; and the garment, which in baptism by the hand of the baptizer the boy had put on, laid up with her (as it is permitted to behold) among the other indications of the virtues she caused to be hung up, for the memory of the granted health.
[4] No less is it wondrous, what at almost the same hour happened in a woman, known both to us and to many others no less by name than by face; the contracted hand to one woman. who when for her contracted hand, and altogether fit for no uses, she poured forth groans and tears; soon (wondrous to say) her hand extended and healed, exhorts all with her to give thanks to God. Joys are heaped upon joys, with signs following the merits of the Saints.
[5] For, after the things which were said and done, on the next d Lord's day, a certain woman, for five years deprived of the light of her eyes, not of her heart, to another blind [woman sight is restored.] having heard of the power of the Martyrs, and the salvation of many by their merits; mindful of the widow, bringing two mites and praised by the Lord, among nobles and rich bringing every precious thing, the coin, which she alone had, to the saints as a holocaust offered. Which upon their sepulchers placed, and immediately received, upon the places of darkness she pressed the sign of salvation; and soon the darkness put to flight, a partaker of the desired brightness, into the praises of him who illumined her, she stirred up the hearts and tongues of those standing by.
[6] To the proclamation of this matter, if it is lawful, let the sacrament of the Gospel be compared. For there a woman, to a third [woman the flux of blood is stopped.] for eighteen years vexed by a flux of blood, by the touch of the fringe of the Savior's garment is recorded to have been saved: here a woman, on the same Lord's day which we have aforesaid, from a flux of blood, with which for two years she had been fed (afflicted), at the touch of the sepulcher of the Saints was cured. In which although there is a difference of persons, not much unlike is the power of the virtue. These are thy works, O Christ, these thy marvels. Here indeed was fulfilled thy saying, which says; "Who believes in me, the works which I do, he also shall do." John 14:12 Which since they are so; if we should say the faithful are to do greater things, without doubt it would seem absurd, if by the testimony of truth itself it were not proven. Which because, by the explanation of the holy Fathers, we have learned to be not otherwise; these things to be said in their places omitting, to those which no less to the praise of God and the glory of the Saints pertain, I will come.
[7] On the fourth weekday after the aforesaid Lord's day, a certain lame man, known to almost the whole city, not at the beautiful gate of the temple to beg alms, a lame man is raised up, but at the glorious memory of the Saints sat, with true faith awaiting the mercy of Christ. When suddenly sound, although Peter and John did not command [it], leaping up and walking, he becomes a cause of gladness to the bystanders, and to those marveling at what had happened. 2 paralytic [women are healed,]
[8] While the people still exulted in the praises of God, two paralytic women, by the merits of the Saints, obtained the grace of health.
[9] Likewise also the daughter of a certain [man] of our city well known, and 2 bent [persons.] and a boy weighed down by a certain similar pain, that is bent in the back even to the feet, encircled; their faces and hands lifting to heaven, after their health, forgetful of their pain, pay praises to the holy Martyrs, and to the omnipotence of the Creator.
[10] Among these things it is not to be kept silent, what added not a little of praise to the glory of the Saints, this miracle too. There was a certain man, From the jaw of a certain [man] by possessions and name known in the city, encircled with an unusual infirmity of the throat and jaw; so far that, after the manner of glowing leprosy disfigured in face, of the fellowship of the faithful he was judged unworthy. Who when for a long time, of that which would conduce to health, of food or drink he perceived nothing, and all in him the care of the physicians had ceased; what alone remained, strengthened by faith and hope, to the merits of the Saints he offered himself; and prostrated on the ground, with vows and prayers tears, witnesses of his pain, abundantly poured forth. But God, who the desire of the poor hears, the vows with the prayers not spurning, deferred the benefits; so that the desires by delay might grow, and the benefits conferred might remain more deeply impressed on the memory. For the following day after prayer returned home, and the table set, for the repairing of his strength some food about to take; the stone removed is shown openly. with his stomach as if seething to vomit, he left the table; and from pain his throat and arteries with his hand constricting, (wondrous to say!) a stone gone out through the pores of his jaw he lifted up, as free from the bodily foulness, as glad of the health received by the merits of the Saints. But [for] us unwilling to give faith to the narrations of many, and, with doubting Thomas, to touch and see the things narrated desiring, the man comes forth into the assembly, to be seen and by hands to be touched bearing the stone in his hand. There is present his brother, to us and the people well enough known: nay and of [his] kin several in number, fit witnesses, exulting. He, both for the remedy of his health, and rejoicing over the testimony of the faithful, silver-encircled the indication of his liberation hung up [at] the memorial of the Saints.
[11] Here something, worthy of the memory of posterity, at the request of many we are compelled to insert. A Matron of Hochheim, coming to venerate the Saints, A certain matron of Hochheim, by riches and name well enough known, to the common joys with her neighbors prepared to go, the others in devotion and labor anticipating, the channel of the Rhine crossed, the grassy top of the field, her bosom loosened, the heat about to relieve, with many others ascended; and a golden necklace, which precious upon her breast she wore, loosed she laid on the ground; and the crowds coming on, of the necklace forgetful, the journey which she had begun devoutly she performed. It was come to the place of prayer; and the patronages of the Saints invoked, the Matron, what she had lost, by friends and others known is taught; and that for returning quickly she ought to come back, she is admonished. She, full of faith, secure of the loss, "This," she says, "the merits of the Saints, to whom I have fled, will keep for me." and thence returning, the necklace lost, She said: and after the refreshment, and of many in the city the greeting, to her own returning, among many thousands going and returning, the necklace where she had placed [it], all marveling and to God and his Saints praises sounding, she found. Although by the virtues of the Saints shown above it has been said; she finds [it in the same place where she had left it,] "Thine are these, O Christ, works"; yet not the coeternal and coequal power of the Father and of the Holy Spirit is excluded. For since not another thing, but another person is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, impious is it in their operation to search out anything divided, in whose will nothing can be reckoned diverse. But although through all things the confession of true faith holds the equality of Divinity and power, yet to the Persons something as it were proper, yet not contrary, the dignation of the omnipotent Trinity disposed. For after, from the joys of paradise that first parent expelled, into this valley of tears with his posterity had fallen; the reason of human salvation demanded, that he be appeased, by the singular benefit of the one and triune God. who through the enemy's envy and man's disobedience had been offended. But since this befitted no creature, the Son is sent, of one nature through all things, who without sin should put on the form of sin, and by Obedience appeasing the Father, the stain of disobedience should blot out. The Holy Spirit is present everywhere, cooperator of both, namely of the Father and of the Son, their bond and love. His power in the beginning was borne over the waters: his power makes fertile the waters for souls to be saved: but to say anything about so great and such a will, was neither of our power, nor of our purpose. Whence according to that which is written, "Not the high things minding, but to the humble consenting"; and "Seek not the higher things"; to those which above we said, and which afterward were done, to join the office of the pen we desire. Rom. 12:16, Sir. 3:22
[12] As the holy Spirit (hagion Pneuma), formerly from heaven descending, glorified the Apostles with the tongues of all nations; so now on the day of his coming, that is of Pentecost, e his Saints, but our Patrons, with signs and virtues he glorified. For we saw some by paralysis; but very many of each sex and age, Within the days of Pentecost various [persons are cured,] of hands, arms, feet, and the other members of the body with a wondrous variety distorted, to their proper state to have returned: three women, long deprived of the light of their eyes, to have received sight; but a fourth, a girl from birth mute, to have received the office of the tongue. To prove these things, the second, fourth, sixth weekday to set down, what does it matter, since that he on his festivity, who containing all things has also the knowledge of the voice, did these things [is] clearer than light; and since for these and things like these the Omnipotent and supremely good is worthily praised; who would not marvel that the creature is likened to the creator in virtues. Nor yet will anyone deny that these are not otherwise than reported, if in the Omnipotent that those united can do all things he will not doubt.
[13] Hence, what we could not even hope for, our Lords and Patrons, partakers of the highest and endless good, not as formerly Kings and powerful [men], their birthdays with expenses and vain praises, but with signs and virtues illustrate their birthdays. For on their festivity next after Pentecost to the blind sight, to the lame walking, and to the deaf hearing are restored; and again on the feast of these holy [ones,] and what is greater than all, for their committed sins sad witnesses [of] conscience, as it were pardon received, glad are made. Which because it is rare, not as everything rare, dear; but because salutary dear, to report [it] not absurd we have judged, to his praise who is above all blessed. It pleases among these things to consider what now the power of the works of God is, since the Psalmist says; "All the ways of the Lord [are] mercy and truth." Ps. 24:10 To various events human frailty is shown subject; for it is of truth and justice, that for [our] committed sins we suffer the infirmities of the body; but of mercy, that, amended by scourges, we attain the fellowship of the heavenly life. But it must be observed, that not always on account of sins, but for the most part to the praise of God do infirmities happen: which the diligent reader in five ways can easily show. For it is written, "Deep calls to deep": because the consonant authority of each Testament by approving invites. Ps. 41:8 Job, simple and upright, with a dire wound; Tobias, equally praiseworthy, for the proving of others and the consolation of others is smitten with blindness; the angel of Satan, from diseases sent [upon men with various ends,] guardian of humility, from the Vessel of election by no prayers is taken away; that Gospel man, neither by his own nor by his parents' sin born blind, to the praise of God is illumined; that Lazarus four days dead, before many praising the Lord, is recalled to the upper world. There is also an infirmity, which whoever can let him avert far, which here begun according to the quality of merits and the examination of the just Judge, will not lack an end, associated with eternal punishments: about which since without a groan we cannot speak, let us set down that infirmity's kind, in which both the Creator's mercy, and his Saints' glory is manifested. For truly it is Written; "Whom the father loves, he chastises." God scourges very many, that inwardly from sin he may restrain them, and outwardly to be healed by the merits of his Saints he may leave them: of which thing an evident indication the following narration demonstrates.
[14] A [woman laboring with quadrennial paralysis is raised up.] A certain Matron, for four years laboring with paralysis, destitute of the strength of all her members, lay on her bed; for not even her head, to take anything of food or drink, could she lift. Meanwhile, having heard the virtues of the Saints, hoping that by their merits she could obtain an end of [her] pains, by the hands of friends she is placed on a vehicle; and to the places of the Saints brought, after vows and tears, partaker of her vow, to her own safe she returns.
[15] Nor was there delay but that at the same hour, all beholding, a certain lame man by the merits of the Saints was healed; Likewise a lame man. and to the Giver of all goods the voice of exultation resounds in the tabernacles of the Just. But because sometimes to prosperous adverse things, and to adverse prosperous, are changed, which little circumspectly frail nature weighs; we have judged worthy here to insert, and by examples to prove, that some ungrateful for benefits, some forgetful of vows, to those pains which they had mercifully escaped not unjustly are rolled back the pains: some however to grace to return, but some the offense of pride and negligence without end to atone for. Hence in the Gospel, ten lepers being cleansed, one with thanksgiving returned, for the merit of [his] faith is praised; but the nine, when by him from whom no secrets are hidden they are sought, reprobate are found: for not to know God, is to be reprobate.
[16] To this our assertion gives support a certain person, Ungrateful for a benefit, in the city by a long sickness, not otherwise well enough known. She, set in the highest spirit (at the point of death), and destitute of the use of all [her] members, to the suffrages of the holy Virgin and Martyr Justina is brought: where, tears poured forth with prayer, by the merits of the Saints safe she is raised up, but unhappy after the received grace of health, forgetful of the Psalmist saying, "My helper, to thee I will sing psalms," without a voice of praise to her own returns; and not much after with a greater pain than before on her bed is prostrated. Ps. 58, But lest among the less devout, witnesses of truth unfit we be judged, she relapses into paralysis. these things not by sight (inasmuch as by the studies and secrets of our profession detained,) but by the relation of the faithful, we confess to have known; Which, because we did not see them, if anyone should attempt to disprove them; let him disprove first, if he can, what in divine and human writings he hears, reads, and understands. For if to those things, which he has not seen, he scorns to give credit; not do we say this to be of folly, but of extreme madness. But these things because on account of the ungrateful and forgetful of benefits we have briefly touched; on account of those who vow and do not fulfill; since it is written, "vow and pay"; not lightly to be esteemed, a deed wondrous to say, we subjoin. Ps. 75:12
[17] When, by signs and virtues widely manifested, the glory of the Saints invited many to the zeal of a better life; Neglecting a vow, a certain man, for prosperous health received, penitence done, vowed himself to the holy Virgin and Martyr Justina thereafter to celebrate the solemnities: but what the spirit of this vow was, the following event manifested. For on the very day of the holy festivity, after the manner of the poor leading a poor life, a sack full of grain he placed on his ass; and to the city which was and is next to the village, the grain sold, he is gravely crushed by a fall as if to do some business he went, and against his vow, of all things ill secure, to his own returned. But while all to the feast of the Saints were running together, he too becomes a companion of the journey: but, with others entering the church, far from the entrance he is repelled. Who however a second, and a third time, and more, while he strives to return to the church; all beholding, an ignominious repulse he suffers, [and] that this by the just judgment of God and the Saints was being done (inasmuch as an animal man, who perceives not the things which are of God) not understanding, and the things which are done about him lightly weighing, and repenting is healed. to his own whence he had come, fearing nothing, to return he hastens. Then suddenly on the journey, from the little ass which he was riding, fallen to the ground, the members of his whole body broken, a great pain by great clamors he attests. Who by the help of those running up, placed on a vehicle, to the church is carried back; but, as before, the church to enter the faculty is denied him. Whence by the exhortation of the bystanders returned to himself, his fault he confesses, and quicker than said the hitherto denied entrance he merits; and among the groans and tears of those praying rising, gave an indication of health. Who meanwhile from tears, who from praises would restrain himself, when in one person, on one and the same day, two contrary things, namely of infirmity and of health, miracles he should see?
ANNOTATIONS D. P.
CHAPTER II.
The remaining miracles of book 1, from the 21st day of June.
[18] Worthy of praise indeed are the things which are said, [but] no less to be marveled at are those which follow. On the feast of St. Alban, For when by the virtues of the Saints their merits we recall; yet, even if unequal in merits, to them the eyes of the mind we lift; who, although unequal in merit, are not aliens from the house of him who said; "In my Father's house there are many mansions." John 14:2 For here there is concord and the eternal glory of all, where it has no place, the mother of discord, envy. Hence is excluded that saying of the poet wise in earthly things; "No faith for the partners of a kingdom": because here for those associated by faith and charity, equality remains of virtues and of power; hence it is that on their festivity, Aureus and Justina by diverse benefits declare their merits. Hence also that Alban, as the Lord of the House, on his festivity for all by signs and virtues is glorified. 5 sick women are cured. For on that very day, five women were cured of various languors: one, the restoration of her wondrously bent arm; that one, received the light of her eyes; three, long denied [it], and one man, received the use of walking.
[19] Two blind men too give increase of gladness: who received their lights on his solemnity, On the Nativity of John the Baptist 2 are illumined. of whom it is written, "Many in his nativity shall rejoice." Among these and things like these, for driving away the shadows of unbelief, the splendor of its brightness into the eyes of all the majesty of heaven poured.
[20] For on the aforesaid day of the holy Martyr, the Vesper praises completed, and by custom all the lights extinguished, a wax candle extinguished by the others, A wax candle of its own accord is kindled on 21 June, at almost the same hour by a heavenly light in the sight of all was kindled.
[21] Nor is it to be passed over, what happened on the festivity of the Apostles Peter and Paul, not dissimilar, but having more of amazement and of miracle; without doubt to the glory of those, to whom the Lord said: and again on the 30th, "You are the light of the world." For one wax candle extinguished after Vespers with the other lights, is kindled; but as if it had not been extinguished, by those not seeing [it] it is charged to the negligence of the ministers. Matt. 4:5. Which soon, as before, extinguished, when to the lesser luminary (as for the most part is done when kindled) it was put under; in a wondrous manner, what had been extinguished, by heavenly power kindled, above the flames of the light kindled before itself it surpasses; and all the people (for much was present), over such great marvels, glorifies the author of light.
[22] And since in time and in the virtue of the works the matter is next, and also on 21 March: let it be next to our this insertion, what we saw on the festivity of our holy Father Benedict. For then before many of each Profession, sex, age, and condition, in a similar manner, as above, nay through all things in the same way, at the tomb of Archbishop Hildibert, a wax candle is inflamed: and from above an unusual, more than usual, voice of those exulting in the praise of God very long is lifted up into the air.
[23] These works of the Trinity had been preceded also by the glory of a wax candle kindled from heaven, which in the first beginning of the revelation the devotion of the whole people and of the Monks had brought from Heiligenstadt: which also had been done on 10 June. where if there is any difference of order, the kindly hearer will not marvel, since it is established there is a power of diverse operation.
[24] Whence to the aforesaid festivity of our Patron we now recur, desiring to commit to memory, wondrous and unusual things, The vanity of clothing is chastised in the church; which present we saw. A certain [man] clad in a tunic too tight, and after the manner of fools with laces on both sides sewn, to prayer from the right hastened. But able neither to pray nor to bow himself, with excessive pains as with chains his whole body to be constricted he cried out. But with all who were present crying out and marveling; he himself, weighing the cause of the matter by the nod of God, by others asked that the tunic be taken off him, which he himself could not [do], prayed. Which taken off, as a garment of vanity and a cause of pain, he was granted to health.
[25] On the same day likewise what we have long detested, abominable to God and to all the faithful to be abominated, we manifestly learned. For the servant of a certain powerful [man] (but that powerful [man] is Franco of Waldorf, with others like himself associated), A ball clinging to the hand of one violating the feast, when he was playing with balls; the ball, which with his hand to throw he wished, soon, his fingers contracted, to his hand more tightly clung. Which the whole day and night by no means able to shake off, with the legates of his Lord to the places of the Saints the following day he came: where, by faith and devotion humbled, his hand extended, among the voices of those praising the Lord the ball he laid down; which, in testimony of so great a virtue, leaving there, safe and glad he returned.
[26] But to be little esteemed is the gladness, which justly is followed by a greater sadness. For behold, not after many days, the same servant, when something fit for games he took up, it is shaken off at the saints' and of those things which had happened to him something laughable inserted; a little knife in a wondrous manner clung to the hand of him wishing to throw [it], so that he could not let it go; until at the memorial of the Virgin the little knife he laid down, made to all the people, who were present, and likewise a knife at another time. a cause both of admiration and of jubilation; why it happened is little established, except that in a similar punishment and salvation, the repetition of the miracle is a confirmation of the Saints' virtue.
[27] Nor is to be passed over in silence what not much, Three sick [women are healed on one day.] but with some interval of time, in three women showed the holy Martyr's intercession; for one of Bingen, by name Guta, daughter of Embrico, from excessive and unusual infirmity, paralysis, that is the failing of the whole body, destitute of strength, by the hands of servants on a litter placed, to the merits of the Saints was presented. Where soon restored to health, that in which she had been brought, in testimony of her faith and health she left. When behold a woman of Bacharach, having long suffered the same infirmity, presented to the Saints, the desired health obtained. A third woman of Hohenburg, founded in the faith of the Holy Trinity, and clad in the habit of holy profession, when with an excessive and contrary to women's nature infirmity she was long burdened, to the holy Virgin Justina the obeisance of perpetual devotion promised, if at the coming of her day to be healed she should merit. Having therefore set out on the promised journey, just as the ten lepers while they went were cleansed, scarcely having measured half the journey's space, what she could not even hope for, that she nothing of pain felt she marvels and exults. But lest she seem ungrateful for the benefit, the journey which she had begun she devoutly performed: and after thanksgivings before the Saints, the cause of the journey and the grace of the granted health to fit persons she disclosed.
[28] Hence, [for] us tending to greater things, not incongruously with us those think, who what follows, dissimilar to the aforesaid, By a greater miracle, as wondrous receive. And indeed it is no less to be venerated than wondrous, to the praise of him, to whom nothing e [is] impossible, who alone it is established dominates in heaven, earth, and sea, and in all the abysses. His right hand the Doorkeeper of heaven in the sea, lest he be drowned, lifted up: this the Vessel of election thrice from the deep of the sea freed: this right hand (that the innumerable things, by which always in his Saints he appeared glorious, we may pass over) just as formerly by the merits of his confessor a boy submerged in the gulf of waters it preserved: not otherwise, now by the merits of his holy virgin and martyr Justina, a certain boy long suffocated by the waters, to life it restored. The place of which matter and the quality of the event, as we have learned, a boy submerged in the sea, in few words here to subjoin we have judged worthy. It happened on one of the days of summer at Frankfurt, when some of each age for the sake of bathing to the river b went, that two little ones, sons of one father, a distinguished man, ran up. Where after their desires were fulfilled, when each returned to his own, the other too of the boys, the elder-born, home joyful returned; not knowing that his brother, conquered by the mass of the waves, submerged perished. But the father and mother being ignorant of the event of the matter, and the boy's return with sad solicitude awaiting; a certain [man] gone out of the mill, a little boat mounted, was making for the shore; when behold he beheld a body borne over the waters. Over which sufficiently amazed, and at first reckoning [it] some corpse of a fish or beast, when, approaching nearer, he recognized a human face, the lifeless body placing in the little boat, to the shore he led [it]. There is present each parent, with an innumerable people, the greatness of their pains attesting with a tearful voice. and thence brought back dead, Their tearful devotion attests, what was over these of all those the wondrous compassion. Finally, all hope of life laid aside, by the nod of God the lifeless body is carried into the church c of St. Bartholomew, where among voices and tears and the litanies of the Saints, St. Justina being invoked he is revived. as a sole refuge, the help of St. Justina the Virgin and Martyr is invoked. At the invocation of whose name (wondrous to say!) the lifeless breast emitted a sob, and by this sign for those awaiting the mercy of God, [his] spirit recovered, he showed to all vital countenances. Nothing sad now sounds there: but he who gives life alone is praised and in the saints glorified. The amount of present gladness gives place to the prior sadness: whence well says the Prophet, "According to the multitude of my pains in my heart, thy consolations have gladdened my soul." * Ps. 95:19 But the father, delaying nothing, lest of so great a benefit he seem ungrateful, the boy to the service of God and the Saints forever gave, by whose virtue him to himself restored he doubted not had been.
[29] These things, for the variety of matters and our sense's pusillanimity, briefly enumerated; Another suffocated by the waters, while to diverse things our pen to turn we strive, almost the same things compel us to repeat of another, but as if of the same matter, the events, and the renewed memory of the same miracle. In a village which is called Werstadt, near a castle by the name of Eppstein, a certain little one, with both parents by the excess of fevers prostrated on the bed, and thence after 24 hours drawn out, while near the mill on the bank of the river he was playing, with sand and mud, his feet wrapped, fell; and from the first hour of the day, up to the first hour of the next day, buried in the mud lay hidden. Meanwhile a certain [man] in house and familiarity near, an axe taken, a tree on the bank of the marsh, to shake off something thence by his usual custom, climbed; when from afar beholding the little one, and believing [it] his own son (for a little one he had), not without great injury of body descended: and at first sight, whose son it was, recognizing, into his hands him he lifted; the father however and mother, on account of their excessive grief, the event of the matter he studied to conceal. There were present at once, by the novelty of the matter summoned, almost all the citizens and inhabitants of that village: the same being implored she comes to life again, who unanimously began to invoke the omnipotence of God and his holy virgin Justina, by whose merits it is established without doubt how much avails the devotion of true faith. For the boy's mouth, whose tongue by the collision of the teeth pierced, still was moist with blood, with a little knife opening, drops of water into his throat they instilled, and whether any vital spirit was in the body they tried to know. But the spirit which was not there, soon returned, without doubt by her merits, whom the shedding of immaculate blood commends to Christ. The father therefore and mother, and his parents are healed of fever. both for the health restored to themselves, and for the boy's safety, to the Giver of life gave thanks; and immediately, the things necessary for the journey arranged, with the boy and offerings to the memorial of the Saints came, and there before the clergy and people, whose multitude then was present, the order of the matter setting forth, and for the boy each year an offering of a quantity vowing to study, after an indication of their faith and devotion, with the other faithful they jubilated to God with a voice of exultation.
[30] While still for the glory of the Saints, to the praise of God, some things here to insert we meditated; The Author, by the greatness of the miracles considering the multitude of his marvels, rather to be silent than less worthy things to say we determined: lest wondrous and inscrutable things before our eyes, as having the abyss of the sea, we should give our sails to the winds with peril, we who, the anchor of faith cast, in a firm station have placed our seat. Luke 5:8 For we are not unmindful of that [man] in the Gospel, who, the multitude of fishes seen, said; "Depart from me because I am a sinner, Lord." For it is proper to true virtue, that in the contemplation of sublime things they do not desert the fellowship of humility: whence it is written, "all my bones shall say, Lord who is like to thee?" For because by flesh frailty, by bones fortitude is signified, the virtue of the perfect, of whatever sort, compared to the highest virtue, is proven dissimilar. Ps. 34:10 Hence it is that that strong [man] formerly the father of Samson Manoah, a sacrifice offered and received, through an Angelic vision incurred despair of life: as Manoah father of Samson, terrified; who, when what was done he related to his wife, through her consolation lacked the fear of death. But well are compunged wife and husband, that is hope and fortitude, since by these two, with humility as companion, altogether the beatitude of the perfect is commended. For when by the zeal of virtues, as it were by a sacrifice of faith, of an Angelic vision, which is the grace of the contemplation of heavenly things, they are exalted; by the conscience of human frailty as if by the peril of death, they are humbled: who however from the state of their rectitude are not cast down, since by hope conceived from prior things, as by a faithful wife, to sublime things they are raised. Hence it is that the wife said to her husband, "If God had wished to kill us, never from our hands a sacrifice would he have received." We therefore, because the gifts of heavenly grace greater than our merits we have received, to commemorating some things, which by the greatness of the marvels terrified we have hitherto omitted, fear laid aside let us return; hoping in him, who those hoping in him does not forsake; who everywhere present, but like that [man animated by hope,] everywhere those invoking the merits of the Saints mercifully hears: for so the dead are vivified, so weak and contracted members are cured, so are opened the eyes of the blind, so are loosed the bonds of the fettered: of whom since the number cannot easily be comprehended; three here placed, the fourth better to be silent about, than to report on account of the evil of discord we have judged; according to that, "Providing good things, not only before God, but also before men"; wherefore those, whom the conscience [as] witness of truth accuses, to him whom no secrets are hidden let us leave; and those, who at the invocation of the virgin and Martyr Justina the peril of life escaped, here let us insert. Rom. 12:17.
[31] A certain [man] by name Bern, of a place which is called Arnstein, a certain poor [man], to him well enough known, now unjustly captivated, to custody deputed, until the lent quantity of money he should pay, who indeed, besides his wretched soul, possessing nothing of his own, and the desire of the unjust exactor to fulfill unable, he narrates how a poor [man, tortured for a debt] is led to a wood, to a tree is bound, his feet let down into a valley which was near, full of diverse and deadly reptiles. Some days therefore there and nights, under the protection of the Most High, having stayed; to the place of his first captivity he is led, and in a courtyard overhanging and to all eyes open, bound, he is placed; having for leggings fetters and chains, for a bed wooden hurdles, with most sharp stakes everywhere projecting woven: where, leading a life graver than death for some time, at last by the admonition of certain matrons, who stood near, Christ's Martyr Justina he invokes; from a dire captivity and quicker than said, his fetters and chains broken, loosed he exults. Yet what should he do? There was before his eyes another kind of death, namely a huge precipice, which if he should choose, he would not escape the exit of life. Finally (according to that which is said, "Let it be permitted the fearful to hope") fear laid aside, again to Christ and his Virgin Justina he commits himself to their help; and through the hanging hurdles descending, his flesh tearfully torn, to the ground came: and delaying nothing, to the memorial of the holy Virgin coming, by the exultation of his voice and the besprinkling of his own blood, of his liberation he gave proof: and all the people to the savior Christ over these things gave praise. As to the glory of God pertains the virtue of the Saints, so indeed to the confusion of the enemy the cruelty of the impious: the Saint being invoked he escaped. but each to the consolation of the pilgrims of the heavenly homeland. So that highest Householder in his house wishes of whatever sort a vessel to have; which (inasmuch as supremely good) well he uses through his wisdom, when of heaven and earth he makes the homeland one commonwealth; by whose judgment, never unjust, for the most part the impious dominates over the pious: which by those whom we subjoin is easily proven.
[32] A certain [man] of a place which is called Eppstein, by name Harpius, Another bound from a similar cause, for money to be given to him, a certain [man] harshly circumvented. But when he had not what he should give, nor yet did the persecutor loosen the reins of his fury; a certain known and chief [man] of that village, a truce obtained, as surety for him intervened, nor yet less innocent by the impious law is wronged: but bound with chains in a lofty place of custody is consigned; where for some time destitute of all consolation, while his surety's return he awaits, most devoutly the holy Martyr Justina's help he invokes. Mark 10:52 Nor was there delay, according to what is written, by similar help he escapes before the eyes of the guards: "Thy faith has made thee whole," his chains broken, loosed from the bonds, God's power he understood. Whence looking around, and the running-up of the guards fearing, for joy of the height unmindful, from the lofty to the depths he gave himself: and as if by soft things received (wondrous to say!) unharmed he sat. Meanwhile, many associated with them, were sitting in the gates the sons of iniquity; that they might watch for ambushes of one by flight perhaps slipping away. Whom seen, fear in him is renewed: but joined in mind with Gehazi and Elisha, seeing them; by them, though eyes serene having, he was not seen. Whom when unharmed he passed through; like Peter returned to himself, a course he entered: nor was the swiftness of the running [man] small, to whose feet fear added wings. He came therefore rejoicing and exulting to the sacred Virgin's Mausoleum, with all who were present, with clear voice magnifying God.
[33] Of the three signal examples of virtues which we proposed, two somehow set forth; the third, mindful of the promise, here to subjoin we do not doubt, even though we fear the hearer's weariness: likewise a third, in this indeed since there is of the matter and miracle almost identity, only of persons and places is there a diversity. For a certain [man], his business done, returning from elsewhere, by Volkmar of Bettelnheim and his accomplices is seized; and in hope of gain bound, to the places of punishments is deputed. These, after the invocation of the sacred virgin Justina, his chains broken, himself absolved with joy he marvels. Nor was there delay, the chains dismissed, by whose sound to be seized he feared, free having gone out; others by price he procured, which (just as there still it is permitted to behold) in testimony of his liberation, to the church of Christ and to the Virgin consecrated to Christ with praises he presented.
[34] Besides a fourth (yet against our purpose) at another time, in another place, and a fourth. but well enough known, at the invocation of the aforesaid and ever-to-be-named Martyr and Virgin, his bonds loosed, his fetters undone, freed, here to insert we judge worthy: not caring for the scoffing and the tooth of envy, while by the vows of the faithful, and of those rejoicing in the merits of the Saints, the great works of God we may be able to utter. e
[35] No less to Christ's and the Martyrs' glory pertains, what to those to come as well as to those present we recall to memory. For it seems than all the things which are aforesaid, To vital motion are restored 2 brothers deprived of it. more worthy of praise, what about two brothers, by the relation of their father and mother and friends, we have learned. For one indeed of these, by a sudden and wondrous infirmity surrounded, for three days mute and as it were lifeless lay; but the other for six days of all the senses of the body deprived presented no sign which to life would conduce. Meanwhile while by custom sad obsequies are prepared, the proclamations of the virtues, which those who were present had heard, are recalled: and certain indications of life perceived, with faith and hope they run to the suffrages of Justina the Virgin and Martyr, at whose name, as at the voice of the last trumpet, you would see all the members move and the lying ones with opened eyes the bystanders clearly behold: and at the same hour, their spirit to them fully restored, and the tongue loosed, sounding with the organ of the voice, the voice of those weeping for joy the voice of those singing praises to God restrained. Which lest anyone, on account of the greatness of the matter, little believing, should deny [it] true, let him consult the village, which is called Weinheim in the region of Bergstrasse, and there taught all the truth, both with the testimony of the vivified ones and of our church, and by the testimony of many believing, let him give thanks to the author of salvation.
[36] In silence to pass over we dare not, that, O most holy bishop Servatius, The blind are cured, a man through whom innumerable men with the grace of health are gifted, who from our Savior's f lineage the glorious origin of [his] blood's descent, by thy merits thou deignest to set forth our Martyr and Virgin. For a certain [man] of Maastricht, poor and blind; in hope of light, with many vows to thee a vigil to celebrate had been accustomed: but hearing among us the proclamations of new grace, not without divine (as we believe) nod to us to come disposed; and in going, by the merits of her of whom we speak, to be illumined he merited. Who, the journey begun performing, to us came, a witness of his health, and a herald of the great virtue of the Saints; with all who were present praises to God resounding.
[37] and a girl. On the octave of the holy Mother of God, a girl certain, long deprived of the light of her eyes, with all beholding was illumined; without doubt by her prayer and merits, who bore to the world the Author of eternal light.
[38] Because it is written, "The just lives by faith"; and elsewhere; "Thy faith has made thee whole," of its virtue, since the occasion offered itself, here some things to insert it has seemed to us good. Heb. 10:38, Mark 10:52 A boy not yet baptized, For through this the fathers of all the ages, heralds of the law and of grace, kingdoms overcome, wealth, of justice obtained the promises. But lest, less learned than the wise, repeating known things, we be a burden; for those wishing to be more fully instructed, to him, who placed on earth merited to see the secrets of the heavens, we refer; but for us at present to show let it suffice, how to those not believing, nor even reborn by the salutary font, the faith of believers succors. A certain woman a little one, whom, according to the Psalmist's voice, in iniquity she had conceived, according to that, "In sorrow thou shalt bear sons," in sorrow she bore: who born, no less to the father than to the mother, of greater was made the cause of grief. Gen. 3:16 What therefore? Where is, good Jesus, life and salvation of all, that which thou saidst, "A woman when she bears has sadness; but when she has borne a boy, now she remembers not the pressure, from a native monstrosity, for the joy that a man is born into the world?" John 16:21 It is plainly true, nor does anything sound contrary, full of mystery, the testimony of truth. For the woman is a mother, the Church; bearing sons of adoption with sadness: who well can say with the Apostle; "Little sons, whom again I bring forth in travail, until Christ be formed in you." Gal. 4:19 She, forgetful of sadness, will fully rejoice, when with the fruit of her labor in heaven she shall be gifted. Well therefore, O Christ, to thy, who disposing all things is not deceived, providence; and to thy Saints', what we say, pertain glory. For the boy born, in one hand and each foot flesh, in the manner of a ball having hanging, and his head divided even to the inspection of the brain, to his parents a horrendous and miserable spectacle presented. The father shuddered, the mother was terrified, that of their own seed such a thing they had begotten. Uncertain what they should do, whether exile for shame they should choose; at last, strengthened by faith, after an incision made by the father, he is freed. St. Justina's help they implored. By which confidence strengthened, the father, iron taken, all the superfluous flesh cut off; and with his hands compressed the head with the sign of the Cross and the name of the Virgin he consolidated; so far that neither in the head of the division, nor in the other members any vestige appeared of incision. But the boy of an age having only five days, not yet the grace of baptism had received. It is established therefore now, what avails true faith, as we have aforesaid: for that paralytic proves it, before Jesus through the tiles let down on a bed; it proves also that deaf and mute [man], by the faith of those offering by him cured. There come therefore the parents, carrying the boy, and with them a not small multitude of each sex of the faithful, to us these things with tears reporting, and to the author of salvation and his Saints praises paying.
[39] While the peoples still sounded the praises of God, over these things which in the boy not yet baptized done above we have reported; behold there was present a certain woman with friends and acquaintances speaking the great works of God. For she, as she asserted, although pregnant, The arm of a pregnant [woman broken] something of work about to do, by the weight of her belly depressed, fell to the ground; and her right arm in two places broken, through many spaces of hours as if lifeless lay; and in the distress of this pain of eight days she passed the times; but the praise and salvation of the world, Christ, by the merits of the Saints all sad things turned into joy. Finally, at the invocation of the most holy Justina the Virgin, is made whole again. having received the health both of arm and of belly, to us she came; the things which had happened to her recalling with tears.
ANNOTATIONS D. P.
CHAPTER III.
The miracles of the rest of the first year, arranged in the second Book.
[40] A few being enumerated, out of the innumerable signs and virtues, which by the merits of his Virgin and Martyr Justina he deigned to show, The Prologue excuses, who works all things in all, you compel us, by God, dearest friend (without doubt only by zeal of piety, inasmuch as a lover of virtues and of religion) to break the silence which we proposed, and as in Daedalus's labyrinth, through tracks returning into themselves, the tried hiding-places to seek again; from which not easy is the return on account of the innumerable, that this book subjoins to the prior [things similar ones;] and difficult windings of the dark journey. But what do we call a labyrinth? if not the purpose of our execution, in which, the aforesaid and almost the same things repeating, while the first with the middle, [and] the middle lest it discrepate with the end we strive to harmonize; what else than through measured and again into themselves reflected paths do we walk? To this is added, that along the ways, namely our actions, what is graver, of malignant spirits we suffer ambushes: who, while they behold us to the light of truth rise up, the shadows of their malignity to the eyes of our mind cast; namely the thoughts of various things, and noxious delights of the human condition; and it comes to pass that the mind, which by the feather of contemplation lifts itself to sublime things, beaten back by the encounter of phantasms remains in the depths. * Ps. 118:115 On account of which the Prophet, "Depart," he says, "from me, malignant ones, and I will search out the commandments of my God"; knowing [it] difficult at once both heavenly things to search out, to rouse a mind subject to distractions; and by the malignant enemies' ambushes to be troubled. With these consonant is the divine history, where of our father Isaac and the foreigners the deeds are reported. For no one reading the scriptures is there who knows not, that the wells which Isaac dug, the envious contention of the foreigners with a mound of earth filled. But we with Isaac, who is called Joy, dig wells; when in the commandments of God the depths of mysteries we seek, which the foreigners, who are called malignant spirits, with unclean thoughts, as with a mound of earth, strive to overwhelm us.
Hence weeping and sitting upon the rivers of Babylon, on its willows we hang our instruments, judging it dissonant, to those who lead us captive, asking songs, to sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land, mindful of thee always, Zion, sweet vision of peace; where is truly the concordant habitation of the holy citizens; where, fragrant as cinnamon and balsam, continually sound the instruments of the Saints; and he invokes Justina blessed in heaven. where without end [is] the song of gladness, which the lament of no inconvenience interrupts. Here now the Virgin and Martyr happy Justina, with her brother Aureus dancing, crowned with rosy beauty; here, feeding among lilies, and surrounded by choirs of virgins, the Lamb the bridegroom, wherever he goes, thou followest; remembering whom, that it is a pleasure to follow the Lamb for the citizens of heaven, still on earth pilgrims, kindly thou hast compassion; and through the omnipotent, with whom thou art one spirit, those faithfully invoking thee, everywhere to succor thou art known. This testify both those things which we have aforesaid, and those which here to subjoin we have judged worthy.
[41] Among the signs of virtues and many thousands of men, there was once led to the sepulcher of the aforesaid Martyr a certain [man], both in face and in habit terrible, inasmuch (alas!) made the possession of a demon, who wishing to be like to the Most High became the lowest, and on this account envied the human race. But of what sort the possessor is, believe from the possessed: A demoniac for nothing human he sounds, but gaping to speak, not words, but confused sounds he brought forth; not only by hand, but by the gnashing of teeth showing himself to all to be feared, and through spaces of hours with renewed pains, with wondrous clamors filled the whole church. Wherefore thrust outside the enclosures of the church, in a fitting place he is chained, up to the time of mercy. But he was led especially in the morning hours, by the hands of servants, to the memorial of Christ's Virgin; where among the voices of those weeping he alone brought forth the gnashings of teeth. But when the time of having mercy on him came, by the merits of his Virgin God regarded him; and at the name of Justina, the vessel which the malignant robber possessed leaving, confounded he departed. He stands free, loosed from bonds, he is freed. who bound had come; he stands cheerful and glad, nor as before fierce, but as gentle. His mouth before blasphemous and full of obscene words, resounds the praises of the Savior, openly protesting and detesting the frauds of the iniquitous invader. What more? For so manifest his glory, in the praises of Justina exults the whole church. But he, after thanksgivings, returns to his own; to acquaintances and friends, instead of sadness, to report the desired joys: and the streets and all the villages, which he had saddened, in testimony of his recovered health with blessings he gladdened.
[42] Behold again the old serpent, of human salvation the enemy, mindful of the ancient curse, by which he is announced to be trampled by the woman's seed, expelled from the man by the woman's command, in the female sex rages with the zeal of his ancient malignity. But in vain: for again through the woman the Virgin's merit, and a woman from her familiar dwelling expelled, his own destruction he recognizes; which no less to the confusion of the malignant invader, than to the praise of the kindly Creator pertains, the order of the following narration attests. Since to declare the Saints' merits some labor of whatever sort we have given, this too not to be passed over we believe, that by the merits of the holy Virgin, the power of the immense King showed in the Bishopric of Speyer. There was there of no mediocre substance and fame a certain woman, by the inconveniences of the falling sickness for much time troubled; who from frequent falling not only in memory, but also in face contracted, scarcely presented the form of a human. Who when long a life graver than death she led, long laboring with the falling sickness. nor by the help of physicians or kin anything profited; at last sometime, from heaven without doubt inspired, with vows to the memorial of the Saints to go she disposed: and the space of a small journey measured, both of the infirmity of her members, and of the deformity of her face she was rid. Then her mind turning to the praises of the Savior, all dread of pain laid aside, to the church joyful she came, and to us her cases in order reported, and the praises of God with tears and joy of heart subjoined. Where after words of consolation, she increased the cause of admiration: for a confession of [her] sins made openly, and the communion of Christ's sacraments received, in each aspect of the person saved, praises to God and to the Saints, but to us joys she heaped most great.
[43] No less is it wondrous, what not much after time happened in the Wetterau, by the merits of the holy Martyr and Virgin Justina. An innocent [man condemned for theft] A certain [man] by the envious report of enemies in an assembly of the people accused, by the impious sentence of judges, as guilty of theft, to hanging had been condemned. Who, inasmuch as poor, of counsel and aid lacking, nor the mark of the objected crime alone, with many accusing, able to refute; the garment with which he was clothed taking off, to St. Justina for his sins gave; and the inspector of all, the witness of truth, God, with tears invoked; and hanged, and the sentence of death given, innocent hanged, up to the next day thus remained. Then when by chance a certain [man] making a journey came here, and the hanging [man] from afar beheld, pricked in heart; "Where now," he cries, "is thy power, Virgin and Martyr of Christ Justina?" and delaying nothing, drawing the sword with which he was girt, he cut the noose; and soon the body, still palpitating, fell to the ground. Which seen, glad and full of faith, often repeating Justina, nay, by Justina's merits the divine power; whom he had believed lifeless, sound and glad in face he beholds; and the journey by the zeal of piety omitted he resumes, magnifying him, on the next day alive he is taken down from the gallows. who does marvels by the merits of his Saints. But the other, his spirit recovered, and his body refreshed with nourishment, for some days bearing the noose on his neck, went about all the streets narrating the event of the matter, and those seeing and hearing with admiration filling, then mindful of his helper whom he had invoked, and of St. Justina to whom he had commended himself; with many attesting the novelty of the matter, to us he came, on his neck still the fresh pain showing, and in his hand the collar, the author of the pain. Which seen, all doubt removed, rejoicing we gave faith to all, which by report running before we had earlier learned; but to God and his Saints with a great numerousness of the people crying out over these marvels.
[34] Hence when to those things which next happened our pen we turned; there occurs what, worthy of memory, in silence to pass over we dare not, about a woman for six years burdened by a demon, A demoniac [woman] and on the second day of her coming to us in this order freed. She had a husband as much in compassion as in faith most devout, and of her labor and journey an unwearied companion: going round with her to the shrines of Saints James the Apostle, Giles, Godehard, and many others' thresholds most devoutly everywhere imploring their suffrages, in vain led to St. James and others, nowhere however is she made partaker of her vow, although it is written, "To him who knocks it shall be opened"; without doubt by the nod of him who alone, to whom he wills, and when he wills, and where he wills, has mercy. Matt. 7:8 But that others we may omit, whose so manifest signs and virtues to disparage it is not lawful, couldst thou not, O Apostle of God, [do] this; who with the partners of thy Apostolate hadst received power over every power of the enemy? We confess, and believe, that thou couldst [do] these and greater things; but to Justina, thy partner in glory, to declare her merit, this gift thou hast permitted. For after many, at thy memorial, vigils without fruit; and after the ways of the laborious journey measured; the aforesaid woman to our church came. Meanwhile with as much effort as he could the enemy, who lurked in her, suppressing himself in silence, because he feared to be divinely expelled; after she entered the church, soon by a howl and dire clamor, what she suffered, he made known. But when after the Mass begun the Gospel was read; the enemy, not bearing the words of salvation, higher than can be said cried out, at St. Justina's Sepulcher she is freed. confounding the sounds of wild animals and beasts, he redoubles them terribly and miserably; so far that, compassionating the person, with tears they were drenched who saw these things, and some went out of the church, unable to bear these things. Wherefore after some spaces of hours led out of the church, but at about the fifth hour brought back to the memorial of the Saints, some dust of the holy Virgin's sepulcher being taken in water, at the invocation of her name straightway of the demon she was rid; and first exulting in the praise of God, to all a cause of gladness she was.
[45] Nor this do we keep silent, what at the same time by the merits of St. Justina we rejoice was done. There were two brothers among their own in lineage and substance lowest, but in faith and quality of morals before the rest conspicuous. Two brothers seized by fraud, Their best successes, after his manner, envied the enemy of human salvation, stirring up against them a certain stronger [man], who, by the goads of envy and the torches of avarice inflamed, desired their substance. A time therefore for his conceived iniquity suitable having gained, the one brother guile circumvented, and him seized and with a fetter constrained to custody consigned: then commanding the other to come, and fearing nothing for himself, if for his brother by prayers alone he should intervene. Who, not of the dove's simplicity, but of the serpent's wisdom destitute, giving faith to words, when he had come is seized, and his one foot with the other foot of his brother with one fetter diligently constrained. There stands the perfidious robber exulting, and with his hands applauding with the companions of his iniquity, that what he had desired he rejoices to have fulfilled; not knowing, wretch, that near is God's mercy to all, their bonds broken of themselves, they escape. [who] by the merits of the Saints their power invoke. For at the invocation of St. Justina, quicker than said, the fetter loosed, there stands free each, his foot drawn back to himself; with all who were present beholding, nor to the manifest power of God daring to contradict. Freed, straightway they come to the places of the Saints, rejoicing, and through all things (as has been said) of the done matter the order reporting. Here not incongruously there occurs to us that Leviathan, whose jaw is pierced through with a ring. For what else is the ring, than the all-embracing divine mercy, which Leviathan's, namely the ancient serpent's, jaw pierced; that those whom he by the cunning of perverse persuasion had absorbed held; after the crimes perpetrated, through penitence to pardon returning, confounded he may lose. There stands confounded this one too, who while more than just he desires, what perhaps would belong to him justly he loses.
[46] By these and other virtues, through the Saints' merits far and wide flashing, we have judged worthy to report this miracle, which on the Lord's Nativity day to us the Most High showed. For on the same day, early in the morning while at the Office, On the Lord's Nativity a wax candle is divinely kindled. "Light will shine," the Collect was added, where it is said, "By the new light of thy word we are bathed"; the pious and holy in all his works God, a wax candle, which then by chance to the honor of the Saints had been placed, with a heavenly and invisible light kindled. Whence for the suddenness of the unhoped-for salvation, the hearts of the bystanders an immense amazement invades, and with the joy of heavenly gladness bathes. O true light, illuminating the innermost of things! O ineffable brightness, which never suffers the hearts of the faithful to be darkened by the shadows of perfidy! What happens? The standing crowd for joy cries out in the praises of Christ: but the Brethren with added melody jubilated the glory of God. We therefore to their praise also communicating, through all things let us glorify the Lord, who those glorifying him preserves unto the ages.
[47] The envious and enemy of the human race, always impeding the good works of men, frequently going round the studies of each, that if he find anyone incautious he may drag [him] to his destruction; even now his venom pouring out, hastens to inflict and overthrow the human heart. A staff cast at a wandering dog But lest we seem to use circumlocutions, by the suffrages of the merits of St. Justina the Virgin and Martyr, the venom of the malignant serpent being indeed emptied out, praise and salvation and glory is proclaimed of our Redeemer. For it happened, that a certain rustic in the village of Liderbach, beside the river Main, a rib of a pig to be roasted by the fire put. But he who animated Cain to the slaying of his brother, mixing sad things with glad, whatever of joy there was disturbed. For running up suddenly a dog with open jaws the rib wished to snatch. the infant killed by his father But the villager with a staff, which by chance in his hand he held, threatening the dog, his own son still an infant struck, so that immediately as if bloodless he fell to the ground, and without breath lifeless remained. What should the father do, when he saw these things? for the mother by chance had gone out of the house. He cries, laments, until the mother by [his] laments is recalled. Who coming, stupefied, with a querulous voice fills the air, and her garments rent redoubles [her] grief; and what she should do, she knows not. But who would forbid a mother, at the funeral of her child, to weep? The mother mourns, the neighbors weep, the kin and friends wail: he is revived. and what about this matter they should say or decree, they utterly doubt and know not. Some cry he is to be buried, others to be guarded; but the mother says he is to be offered to Blessed Justina. Among all these things, the mother's intention prevailing, the boy is vowed to the blessed virgin Justina. What therefore? Will the mercy of God be made distant from just petitions? Far be it. For the Lord, through blessed Martyr Justina's merits, receiving the vows of the humble, beholding the hearts of the contrite, after the manner of the Prophet in the upper room reviving the boy, the accustomed suffrage to believers expanded. Therefore while for burial the parents on the journey bear the boy; suddenly divinely done they perceive in him a miracle. For by the holy Virgin's help, lifting his eyes they behold [him] and breathing through sighs, sound and unharmed they receive [him]: at last as they had disposed, to the thresholds of the Saints with praises they set out, and their vows with thanksgiving are paid: which accomplished, by the way they had come they return to their home, rendering to God always praise and glory.
[48] Nor less worthy of praise, what not much after, A boy to be suffocated by a swallowed glass ring, through the invocation of St. Justina in the village Natgowe in the village which is called Colla, not so wondrous as praiseworthy was done a sign: in which village, as is the custom for little boys, with glass rings childishly to play, a certain one of them one by chance swallowed: which, because, laboring with difficulty, sticking in his throat he could not shake out; suffocated like, without voice without breath to the earth lifeless he fell. What should the parents, by the sudden peril of their child terrified, do, except what alone they could, lament? The sudden destruction with a lamentable voice weeping yet of blessed Justina not unmindful, a vow being made for him he is preserved: the boy to her thresholds carrying, her consolation humbly implore. Nor was there delay, the most blessed Virgin, as if she would say, "You have called me, behold I am present"; defers not to the devout to confer suffrage. For the boy, who now almost by all dead was reckoned, to the honor of him, who does marvels alone, and the praise of blessed Justina, vomiting out what harmful he had taken, before the bystanders is freed, and to his own unharmed is given.
[49] It happened also in the same district, that a certain little one was left without guard in a cradle: whose face a pig coming by chance with bites, so that he seemed not even to have a human face, tore; another gnawed in the face by a pig and with confused face deformed and querulous and bloody left [him]. His parents finally coming, the grief of their heart by clamor indicated; and the neighbors and acquaintances, by the clamors stirred, came together; and what counsel or healing they should apply, their griefs turned upon themselves, deliberated. But at last such a solace they find, he is restored to his former form. that for healing to Blessed Justina they make refuge. O the wondrous providence of God, against whom there is neither counsel, nor knowledge! For immediately at the invocation of the blessed Virgin, he who cleansed the leprosy of Naaman the Syrian, the aforesaid boy's face, as if a wound he had never felt, healed.
CHAPTER IV.
The continuation of similar Miracles.
[50] When anyone to writing, by love of study or by exercise of talent, applies his mind, The Prologue asks the help of the spirit about to set forth of a done thing or one to be done the order, such indeed he ought to hold a mean, lest his intention (according to that saying of the Apostle, "Let each one abound in his own sense") exceed [his] talent. Rom. 14:5 For there are some, who in writing so desire higher things that they cannot return to lower. These indeed, when, accusing the foolishness of their rivals, their own inertia they do not reprehend, of a more negligent mind do not correct the sloth; to the narrating of the last prodigies. we now, considering the littleness of our talent, often repeating, "Be not high-minded, but fear"; placed before us, we revere a third time the answering pen. Rom. 11:20 But there are two things which compel; love and fear. Love namely of the second revelation of the holy Relics of Aureus the Bishop and Justina his Sister; but fear, lest, if in silence we pass them over, we be judged slothful. For it is written, "Who shall blush at my words, at him shall the son of man blush"; what in the ear you have heard, preach upon the housetops. * Matt. 10:27 May he breathe upon [us], therefore, who by breathing fills all.
[51] In the year from the finding of the holy Relics revolved upon itself, with very many in the church of St. Alban our Patron signs through the invocation of the aforesaid Martyrs flashing; with many however still, whether truly their bodies were there or not, In the year 1138 with some doubting, doubting; on that day, on which the very finding was held celebrated, among the nocturnal prayers of the middle of the night, to a certain handmaid of God of good testimony known, and of holy conversation our Brother, who already long ago from life had departed, and of the same once a faithful guard of the church, asking if she slept, appeared: and she denying that she slept, he added; "Doubt not, but for certain know, thou and any faithful, the mercies of God, which in this basilica are multiplied, the presence of St. Justina is certified through a vision. truly Blessed Justina's, resting here and remaining here, to be helps, to all the world in these times very necessary." The handmaid of God therefore as much by the unusual vision terrified, as from the ecstasy of mind returned to herself, the space of one hour almost passed, "What, reverend," she said, "Father and elder, do you say of the Virgin's brother?" He answered, "What of the sister, far beyond all doubt, thou shalt feel also of the brother." These and things like these conferring with body and soul, lest of the greatness of God's revelation the handmaid be lifted up, to her own self she was made a goad, with the urgency of prayer. 1 Thess. 5:19 Nevertheless at last in this word trusting, "The Spirit do not extinguish," to the Father of the Monastery, what she had seen, to intimate she fears not to do more quickly; with him as witness and the same revealing, who is conscious of secrets, who, deferring, does not diminish for his own the rewards; to him praise, honor, piety, and glory.
[52] After some following days, therefore, when the Vigils of the feast day of the holy Martyrs were kept, and the payments of vows there most devoutly were paid, and of various peoples daily thither flowed crowds; then however more than usual a multitude of the sick on account of the solemnity in troops rushed, On the Vigil of the Saints and the blessed Martyrs' helps with sobbing prayers implored. For as that day was held more celebrated than the rest, so to every believer was imparted a grace more abundant. A certain woman of Fritzlar, long bereaved of sight, taking the journey to the suffrages of the Saints, on the very journey at their invocation, was illumined. She however her journey completing, she is illumined blind, paid [her] vows; and the voice, before all the people praising the Lord, seeing, to the glorification of the Saints, she lifts up.
[53] Nor only by these (as we have said) virtues did our neighborhood flourish, but also foreign nations, the intervention of Blessed Justina and her brother Aureus feeling, At Regensburg one violating the feast is punished, congratulated [us] in their borders. Therefore in the city of the Norici, Regensburg, beside the river Danube, the wondrous things, which God works in his saints, are not hidden from the sons of men. This city as among all that region is the most renowned, so by the report of those flowing to it is most famous, fertile in fields, noble in buildings, and with all delights abounding. From this therefore a certain [man] on a certain day, on which it was not lawful (for it was a feast) in the time of harvest going out to reap, feared not the unlawful work incontinently to set his hand to: for it was unlawful which the sacred day forbade. But he who of the sacred day spurned the celebration, immediately the divine vengeance felt; and penitent he receives the use of his hand: for the handle which reaping with his hand he drew (wondrous to say!) as if naturally grown together, indissolubly to his palm clung. That wretch, just as he was disabled, the blessed Virgin's name, of which by report he had heard, invoked; and taking the journey, through the rugged ways to her solace hastened; and so by hastening paying [his] vows, his hand received, he is loosed; and loosed praising and glorifying God's mercy to his own returns.
[54] These things thus done, a certain woman of the village Altsigen, deprived of sight, with many to the suffrages of the Saints tending is led, and by the hope which does not confound consoled, and blind, sight. by the faith which works all things confirmed, on her journey sets out. It was come to the place where mercy is sought, grace is found; where praise from the mouth of men shall not fail, a heart contrite and humbled God will not despise. For the woman bereaved of sight, for herself asks with received confidence: whose pain indeed he defers not to pity, with whom are all true and just judgments, who just petitions does not disdain to behold. With many indeed beholding and standing by, at the invocation of Blessed Justina, she who had come blind, is illumined; and God, who is blessed unto the ages, by all the people is glorified.
[55] Likewise a certain [man] in the village Winkel, in the district which is called Rheingau, Against a vow returning to play, a poor [man] not unknown, not lowest in lineage, but in morals (for he was wanton), when he had nothing except a simple vessel, fit for wine, which a "tun" they call, with the others playing balls running about (according to that Poetic saying; "Who has not lost ceases not to lose, the player") by playing lost [it]. But by his parents (as is wont to be done) having suffered much, harshly is reprehended. He vows therefore to Blessed Justina, that to this game not thereafter would he return. Then not many days intervening, when, the feast of Walpurgis past, at the coming feast day of the blessed Apostles Philip and James, which day was held there celebrated, he is blinded, many on account of the feast all around flowed together, and to various games after the manner of the loose and wanton age, devoted themselves; he, of whom is the mention, unmindful of the word, "Vow and pay," to the game which he had vowed against returns, and so to deeds contrary to [his] vows. * Ps. 75:12 What else? The hostile power, unless a good purpose it impede, never ceases. But see, brethren, how miserably they are smitten, who, departing, what or to whom they have vowed do not remember. For this wretch, transgressing his vows, of sight is bereaved and to the earth is prostrated; the wanton [one] is humbled, and Blessed Justina's name without intermission is invoked. All who had heard and seen these things, and penitent he is illumined. as for a vengeance and a miracle reckon [it]. But he himself, of whom the discourse [is], to the suffrages of the Saints is led. The Omnipotent God therefore, who is appeased through penitence as he himself says: "Be converted to me and I will be converted to you," does not defer mercy. Zech. 1:3 For he who miserably grieving is deprived of sight, to the praise of Blessed Justina rejoicing mercifully is illumined. Let no one despair; let no one distrust: wretched is he, who at the fountain of mercy is afraid. But let us be afraid, abhorring to sin; let us not be afraid through penitence, what we have strayed, to amend. For amendment he loves and penitence, who us from death to life recalls, through the remission of sins and penitence.
[56] We know and confess the name of the eternal Trinity, In honor of the Holy Trinity, in three Persons, of one and the same essence to be of Divinity. This attests the Father of many nations, who, three seeing, one adored; with the Prince of the Apostles, who after the threefold denial, one true God indivisibly confessing, adored. Little however confers with confession invocation, unless a faithful operation vivifying the faith follow: for a good work is constancy in faith, if (according to that, "Who shall have persevered to the end shall be saved") it be saved by perseverance. Matt. 10:22 But where by these forepalated we tend, in what follows diligently let us hear. thrice led to the saints a contracted [man] There was a certain [man] well enough known to the city, in the city of the Vangiones, Worms, so broken limb by limb, that with his leg to his neck suspended, scarcely on a litter was the contracted [man] carried. He when by a long-lasting languor miserably was thus tortured, that he could be cured he doubts not, if at the suffrages of the aforementioned Saints he be presented. With others therefore thither hastening he is led: but he himself, with many there the effect of their vows obtaining, once and again led and led back, no grace of mercy obtains: which whence it was, to him, under whose nod death and life, languor and health hang, let us leave. Nevertheless he of whom the discourse is, of the Gospel not a deaf hearer is made; where it is said, "Knock and it shall be opened to you": but after the example of him, who on account of importunity, his friend rising at midnight, received three needed loaves, at last he is raised up. he urges in season out of season, and patiently awaiting the time of mercy, a third time is led back. Luke 11:9 While therefore with the rest of the multitude he sets out, on the journey suddenly he cries out, that, though long deferred, yet from him was not the help of mercy taken away. O truly long-suffering and very merciful God, whose mercy has no number; who therefore to the asker defers not, that he may withdraw, the help, but that he may increase the desire. For this languid [man], of whom we speak, to the doors of the basilica of the Saints led, freed exults; and the whole church to his praise, who every languor heals and infirmity, rejoicing together resounds.
[57] The serpent, the lier-in-wait of the human race, of the crime perpetrated from the beginning in the creation of the woman not yet forgets: for he himself, envying the eternity of man, to whom he was the cause of [his] first ruin, ceases not to renew the cup of death, a girl a demoniac which to the first parent he had given to drink. Therefore so accursed, whence first he shook off his cunning, upon his own breast creeping, against the woman and her seed daily exercises enmities. A certain therefore girl, by her parents tenderly loved, an elegant form of a human having, when she was like a sensible person, suddenly is the possession wondrously of a demon: whose passion (suffering) evidently manifests, how of the wicked possessor she was made the possession. For herself tearing terribly, with reproachful words she raves; and gnashing with her teeth, by hands and feet she is bound; her wretched parents however, with her just as she was, to the suffrages of the Saints tending. Where when for some days, awaiting mercy, she is freed, tearfully agitated, she passed the time, and the people seeing these things, together with the parents, the name of Blessed Justina invoking lamented; it happened that on the fourth weekday as if somewhat drowsy a little from the fury she ceased; so that no one, by the merits of the blessed Virgin and her brother Aureus, the enemy conquered and cast out (as he was) doubted.
[58] A certain girl of the village of St. Goar, upon the river Rhine situated, when she was lame, a lame [girl is set straight.] once and again led to the suffrages of the Saints; a third time, for the reverence of the Saints, the Trinity's power showed in her itself. For she who before lame and weak, upon herself lamenting, was wailing, [her] health fully received through the merits of the Saints, with the rest praising God cheerful exulted.
[59] After some following days, when in all regions had more fully shone, what and of what kind God's omnipotence to his saints rewards wondrously had conferred, the signs are renewed, A sick pilgrim, having had his beast of burden stolen, the marvels are changed, not only worthy of admiration, but also useful to the faithful for the increase of faith. For with the rest to the suffrages of the Saints hastening, and the author of their salvation there humbly invoking, a certain [man] troubled by the heaviness of his body, carried on a beast, prayer made, with the rest into lodging was received, invited. He therefore, when his wearied from the journey limbs to rest he had given; in the early morning, when first the day had dawned, the beast he found not which he had brought: for a thief, under the silent night, after his manner had taken [it] away. What should he do? To Blessed Justina what had happened he commits, and exclamatory words in this manner with weepings he sends forth. "Justina Martyr, Justina Virgin, I have believed even, that thee more perfectly I may believe; as if he would say; "Help me, he is compelled on the 3rd night to restore it. because thou canst: for from thee, unless having received what I have lost, I will not depart." These and things like these through the whole three days redoubling, of the Trinity on the third night he felt the help. For he who the theft in the darkness had done, with new light perhaps bathed, secretly had come; "Pilgrim," crying, "pilgrim, hasten, bound to the wall receive, what me from thee having taken Blessed Justina forbids to lead away": and so it happened, that, urgent in prayer, what he had lost he received; and the thief by repenting profited, now not the thief's office bearing, but of his guilt by pure confession a token. What exactor, my Brethren, or judge bent this [man] back from the thief's ferocity, except he who said, "All judgment the Father has placed in my power"? John 5:22 Who recalled the same from the robbery's obstinacy, except he who the robber repenting to the pleasant places of paradise recalled? Let us too invoke him who is the author, through the trophy of the Cross, that he may guard us from the hostile pilfering, to whom the pilgrim paid praises with all devotion.
[60] It happened meanwhile that a certain paralytic girl, of the village Breidereida, now ten years having in her infirmity, thrice to the benefits of the Saints led had come, and no help of health had obtained. But the omnipotent God therefore to those asking defers not that he may withdraw, a paralytic [girl is cured,] but that in faith they may be increased and just desires grow. For this same girl, when on the feast of the precious Martyrs Victor and his companions, a fourth time to the place of mercy was led back; partaker of her vow made, of her health the author, first of all with raised voice, with many present, to praise she fears not. Let no one doubt, that their merits on that day in heaven most prevail, on which their venerable Memory among us was kept on earth. There is added to this testimony, that on the same day this we used as Gospel, in which the Savior, "Take up thy bed and walk," said to the paralytic. * John 5:8 Let us take up too the testimony, postponing transitory things, setting before ourselves heavenly things, to which may he lead us, who alone lives and reigns unto the ages.
[61] Let us consider how wretched a life it is, which nothing follows but mourning: whose, since its end is unknown, by a long-lasting hope of living almost all we are deceived. But this I would say therefore, because there are some who at every hour so death suspect have, that to sin they fear, to offend they dread. These indeed, the beginning having of understanding, the memory of past things not postponing, By the hidden judgment of God the providence of future things desiring, their vigils guarding, of the falling age no ambushes fear; thither directing the paths of their steps, whence of life they took the beginning. Nevertheless, just as each house both bad and good contains; so the church both fosters the elect, and sustains the reprobate; of which reprobate the contumacy and overflowing pride, as in many thousands of Martyrs appears, sends the elect's humility to the crown of life. Why such a probation (tirocinium) is not permitted to those, because too subtly to investigate we fear, to the very just and hidden judgment of God to be discussed we commit. Israel is said to mean "seeing God," but the Jewish people, who carnally is called Israel, by no means sees God, in whom in no way to believe it has: but the gathered people of the gentiles, into the unity of faith received propitiation, redeemed by the blood of the son of God. Whence it is said: "Because with thee is propitiation." For God's propitiation is the accusation of sins, and through remission of all things to believe and to hope, of the heavenly kingdom; and through innocence and pure confession, the possession of a clean conscience is obtained. Ps. 129:4 But where the intention of this our discourse is directed, in what follows to your fraternity more diligently is intimated. It happened in a district which is called Bergstrasse, that a certain servant, content with his own, by enemies, who also him of his own possession had stripped through envy, an innocent [man condemned for theft] of a nocturnal fire was accused, and accused on a certain day, by chance with them meeting was seized; and seized, through the byways of the woods and through the rugged places of the mountains cruelly dragged, without judgment to a shameful hanging innocent was condemned. But he, as he was placed between life and death, groaning and trembling, that pure of this matter is his conscience attests; praying God and beseeching [him], that to him for the foulness of this guilt so shamefully he be not granted to die on the stake: and so to God and Blessed Justina his innocence with all devotion he commends. O hostile power; why dost thou despise the innocent's conscience! Dost thou not know, that in the day of tribulation to those crying out, and hanged, God's clemency most is present? But since many are the tribulations of the just, therefore the true liberator's help in them superabounds. What therefore, Fellow-Brothers, further? The innocent [man] hanged with punishment, all are amazed in hearing. The whole neighborhood, with acquaintances and friends, the hanged [man] investigate: but for the whole two days through the dark hiding-places of the woods, the sought [man] is not found. On the third day at last, all places searched, to the place of hanging, with God leading, they come; and among the thickets of brambles, hanging and still palpitating they find [him]: and immediately loosed, with signs by which he could (for to speak, attenuated in spirit, he was not able) of Confession and the Viaticum the desire making known, with them to the church … they carry [him]; where not as a robber or pagan, he is preserved for receiving the last [rites.] but as a faithful Christian, not on the stake, which to the Blessed Virgin he had commended; but upon the earth, whence he had been taken, full of faith he expired. Who would not believe that he obtained such an end from God through the intervention of Blessed Justina, to whom his innocence by a true relation he is believed to have committed. These, Brethren, are the works of innocence: this is the victory of a good conscience: which thus unanimously persevering let us study to imitate, that of the eternal retribution partakers we may be found.
[62] Kindly God, founder of the world, of all creator, King Christ supreme, who alone sustainest the mass of the earth surrounded by waters, After some cessation of miracles of whose majesty it is to be able to do all things, to know the incomputable under number, just as the stars by name, so also the rains drop by drop; all things thou beholdest, connecting the lowest with the highest. It knows, O God, thy power alone, why sometimes from those asking by a certain delay are withdrawn the benefits: but perhaps this is done, (as thou thyself sayest, "Are there not twelve hours of the day") for a difference of times according to that saying of the Wise [man], "All things have a time." John 11:9, Eccl. 3:1, All things are done, as we believe, by certain measures of times. Little by little therefore, some space of time slipping away, when in the aforesaid basilica of the Saints for a little the accustomed benefits had ceased, nor yet there of vows had less the desires their increment; a certain [man] well enough known, by name Gnanno of Aschaffenburg, in all his members for a whole three years miserably contracted, to acquaintances and friends, thrice carried back a contracted [man,] parents and kin, a testimony of labor and of grief even miserable he had been made. He indeed, when to the suffrages of the Saints once and again by some kind of carrying carried back, and yet not the long-desired help of health had obtained; yet not on account of the debility of his body with weariness is he affected; but, what alone he could, himself instigating friends and admonishing them, a third time to the place of mercy, on Passion Sunday is led back. Where while he had been more nearly placed, all present with the voice he could tearfully admonished, that for him they would deign to pray, that, with God granting and St. Justina interceding, the health of his body he might merit to receive. Which when it had been done, and the whole Church for him prayers to God had poured; no delay of health is made, where such with God prevailed a prayer. For to him, to whom to the salutary places a third was made the iteration, of the undivided Trinity immediately offered itself salutarily the pity. What therefore? You would see the lame [man], to full health restored, leap forth; he is cured. you would see the contracted [man], more in glorification, in the praises of God suddenly leap up. O truly long-suffering and very merciful God, who defers not that he may withdraw the helps! Therefore in his praises, for such great marvels, the whole church with joy resounds.
[63] After these things, a space of some time having slipped by, when everywhere in the lands of the Saints was declared the merit, Likewise a paralytic mother, in certain poor little women of Nytea, namely mother and daughter, needing God's mercy, the heavenly glory is manifested. For the one, the mother, with so great a debility of paralysis contracted lay, that with no motion of her members could she make use of them, except with great pain and the lifting up of the whole body: but the other, so miserably was made the demon's mockery, that, having gotten a solitary place, many times she had prepared for herself a hanging; and this she would often have perpetrated, if by the precautions of [her] kin prohibited she had not been. Nevertheless, lest the iniquitous invader's instigation entirely be made void, in herself was shown frequently a most bloody tearing. O thing to be pitied! The one burdened by the debility of body, the other as if mad bound, all around is rolled. But the mother of her own pain is forgetful, and with the daughter's miseries as with her own bowels compassionates. She invokes God, and the holy Virgin's help implores: all she exhorts to pray, that a continual prayer for the daughter's liberation to God be poured: like the Canaanite woman she is made, while more for her daughter than for herself with inmost heart the Lord she prays. But the truthful and just God, who when he wills has mercy and accommodates, and a daughter a demoniac. the contrition of [her] heart hearing, to the patient soul a swift desire presents; when the daughter, being as it were now from the bonds loosed, to the mother protests, that she in a vision to Blessed Justina's helps had been called. To whom the mother: "Who," she says, "with me languishing, thee shall lead?" But she, now of sound mind made; "Mother," she says, "he who where and when he wills saves, himself to me through a vision manifested, that both of my journey thou shalt be a companion, and of health a partaker through the Saints' suffrages." And it happened, that, while to the place of mercy continually praying they walk, of their desire restored the health, under the testimony of many men, who praise God over all that they had seen [as] those praising, partakers of their vow they are made. For the one, from the litter on which she was carried suddenly leaping out; the other, from the enemy freed, congratulating, home both with joy return, and all who were present to the praise of the Author of all goods are kindled, to whom is honor and glory, through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.
ANALECTA D. P.
From the book of Sigehardus Monk of St. Alban Which exists in a Ms. of the Charterhouse of Cologne
Aureus the Bishop, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Justina his Sister, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Justinus the Deacon, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Many other Martyrs at Mainz and Heiligenstadt (SS.)
FROM Sigehardus
§. I. A narration of the Passion and burial diverse from the former; the Finding in the 12th century more distinctly set forth.
Because of this book and its age and Author, enough has been treated in the preliminary Commentary, nor do we judge the whole worthy of the press; it pleases under the title of Analecta to collect the chief places pertaining here; and the double Prologue being omitted, with the three first wordy Chapters, from Chapter 4 to take a beginning, almost higher than is needed; yet not uselessly for a more distinct knowledge of Mainz affairs. When therefore Sigehardus had said, that the City of Mainz, not in that manner in which it is situated, but in another place farther distant from the Rhine was founded, as antiquity hands down, The old city before the devastation he says (nay rather the common opinion holds) the first walls of that city, in a level spacious place, where now is the house of the sons of Gehazi, that is of lepers, and the church of the Nuns of St. Mary, which is called Sacred-valley (Heiligenthal), were constructed. From which relation it can probably be argued, that the place where now is the chapel of St. Hilary, was the Episcopal residence then. There namely of the ten Bishops, who before the times of the great Boniface ruled the Mainz church, the bodies which now in the church of St. Alban rest, were laid up. For the presumption is strong, that, with few Collegiate churches yet existing, nowhere rather than in their own Cathedral church did they choose a place of burial … But to my assertion, farther from the Rhine's bank. about the prior place of the city of Mainz, consent the surviving in the same plain particles of walls, and subterranean foundations all around found, nay even the surviving ruins of a theater, which after the manner of the Romans, for the Circus games or gladiatorial games and for public spectacles, was constructed outside the city; and to this day is shown; and also titles, deeds, and names of various Princes carved on stones, which below and outside the city in several places are found scattered.
CHAP. VIII.
CHAP. IX.
[2] In the number therefore of those Bishops, who, as has been aforesaid, ruled the Mainz Church, its formerly Bishop Aureus, before the times of the most holy Boniface, the most blessed man Aureus … truly a man wholly Apostolic, the dignity of the Pontifical Chair having obtained, the office of so great a name with a most holy life and divine works adorning, the rule of the Church committed to him most vigorously governed: although the whole world by various and especially the Arian heresy's storms was shaken … which pestilence at the royal nobility's city Mainz had so far involved [it], that scarcely anyone dared openly himself to profess Catholic. But the most blessed Pontiff Aureus, openly opposing this error, and visibly resisting [it], thence by the Arians he is cast out and the heretics' arguments by the testimonies of the divine scriptures refuting, convinced them; and as a true shepherd, not a hireling, for the truth, and for the people committed to him deeming death pleasing, the sheep entrusted to him, snatched from the jaws of wolves, studied to rescue … Seeing therefore the nurslings of heretical depravity, that by the arguments of truth they were confuted; against the blessed man in a furious manner they rave … Cast out therefore from his seat is the blessed Pontiff … shaking off the dust of his feet over them, and the places of his diocese visiting all around and those he could from error recalling, with his sister Justina and many orthodox. the work he fulfilled of an Evangelist … But there accompanied the blessed man's footsteps, not so much by change of place or walking of feet, as by actions and purity of life, the most sacred virgin Justina, as much in faith as in blood his sister german, and of his passion the faithful companion and partner afterward to be … Several other religious persons too, men and women, who from the truth and integrity of the faith to recede deemed a crime … with an equal sentence with the holy Bishop were cast out …
CHAP. XI.
[3] Meanwhile, as Blessed Jerome testifies in the epistle which to Ageruchia the noble widow he wrote, Meanwhile the city is laid waste by the Huns, innumerable and most ferocious nations occupied all the Gauls: whatever between the Alps and the Pyrenees by the Ocean and the Rhine is enclosed, the Vandal, Sarmatian, Alans, Gepids, Heruli, Burgundians, Alemanni; and (O republic to be lamented!) the Pannonian enemies laid waste. For Assur came with them: Mainz too, a noble once city, was captured and overthrown, and in its churches many thousands of men were slaughtered … And so while the most blessed Pastor and Pontiff Aureus, with his Justina and that faithful company to the city of his see, into whose ruins Aureus, returned, from which through the Arians' insolence and the persecution's rage long since he had been cast out, returned, he found it overthrown to the ground … and the perfidious Attila the King, that region and province still all around circling, all things with fire and sword laid waste … (in the year 451) The most holy Pontiff however, not fearing the unbelieving King's savagery, and the perverse nation's bestial madness, in the midst of the depraved and perverse nation passing through, evangelized and preached publicly Christ; … comforting the minds of each, and admonishing, that, by the love of this life set on slippery ground deceived, to die for the truth they should not doubt …
[4] By whose salutary word of admonition the most sacred Virgin Justina, … with that little flock of the faithful, and animating his [people to martyrdom,] who the exile from the City and his Seat long since cast out Pastor had followed, animated, to the passion of their own accord to thrust themselves desired … * But the word of sacred instruction completed, the blessed Priest Aureus the Holy of Holies entered, for himself and for the people committed to him, the price of our redemption about to offer, with the most blessed Justina and the rest, whom the sincerity of faith and the love of charity toward so great a Father did not permit to be separated, standing by. Where while at the altar standing the solemnities of the Masses he celebrated, and himself with a contrite and humbled heart sacrificing offered to the Lord; suddenly a crowd of Huns and likewise of Arians rushing in, surrounded him, and also the faithful who were with him: and against the Saints of God the swords of their fury and arms turning, first the blessed Bishop cruelly slaughtered they slay, amid the Sacred [rites with them he is killed,] then the venerable Virgin Justina with the rest of the faithful who likewise stood by …
C. VI.
CHAP. XV.
[5] Already long ago indeed, with the whole world fervent with the storm of persecution … infinite hosts of Saints, and he is buried on the mount of Martyrs, now [the mount of St. Alban.] Martyrdom for Christ's name having suffered on the mount where now is the church of St. Alban outside the walls of the city, which among the Gentiles was called Mount-of-Mars (Mons-Martis), it is established to be buried … which, idolatry now utterly eliminated, the Christians, the name changed for the better, the mount of Martyrs from the thing itself and the evidence of the fact congruently called … * The most holy therefore bodies of the Blessed Aureus, Justina, and their Companions, to the Mount-of-Martyrs above said, according to the exigency and quality of the time, quite honorably were buried; where through many courses of times they lay, to other men unknown and therefore as if without honor despised and abject … But afterward, peace now restored to the Churches, the City then restored, and with Catholic Princes reigning, about the restoration of cities, about the reformation of churches, to the honor of God and the praise of the Saints, the Princes themselves began to think … and the distinguished city of Mainz, by Attila (as has been said) overthrown, not in that place in which it had first been founded, but in another nearer to the flowing Rhine, where to this day it is situated, much more honestly than before they restored … Thus far he, going before the compilers of the Mainz Breviary with the words, which in compendium should follow; to me all very uncertain, on account of the place, manner, and authors of the Martyrdom, about which the more ancient than he, as we see, far diverse things wrote; but the people of Heiligenstadt hand down all contrary things. Let us proceed to the more certain things which from Goswin's treatise the same Sigehardus excerpted, chap. XIV and following.
[6] But with time proceeding; namely in the year of the orthodox Prince and Catholic Emperor Charlemagne the thirty-eighth, in the year 805 the church of St. Alban is founded, which was of the Lord's incarnation the eight hundredth fifth, but of the passion of the Saints Aureus and Justina the three hundredth fifth, * when that memorable Richolf, third from blessed Boniface Archbishop of the holy Mainz See, the fifty-fifth by the authority of the already said prince Charlemagne, on the above named Mount-of-Martyrs over the sacred Ashes of Blessed Alban the Martyr a Church with sumptuous work, just as today is seen, founded, both Blessed Alban's and also of the holy Aureus and Justina and their companions and many other Martyrs the bodies in coffins, and into it are brought the Holy bodies: more becoming and honest (as afterward was found) to commend he took care; secretly however and under the testimony of few, because he feared to give the Holy to dogs, and the pearls of such precious Relics to send before swine; but, when after this second burial of the Saints, a hundred thirty years had been spent, which was of the incarnation of the Lord the year nine hundred thirty-fifth, in the time of Henry the first of this name King of the Romans, Hildebert, from the Pontificate of the great Boniface the twelfth of the Holy Mainz See after Heriger the venerable Archbishop, to which are added in the year 935 another 10 holy Bishops. the Relics or bones of ten Bishops, who before the times of the most holy Boniface ruled the Mainz Church, namely of Crescentius, Martinus, Bodadus, Suffronius, Maximus, Sydonius, Sigemundus, Lentgasius, Lantwaldus, and Laboaldus, from the Chapel of St. Hilary, of which above was made mention, where the same Bishops had been buried first, to the monastery of St. Alban translated, accompanying [him] the Clergy and people of the city, with a solemn procession; and those Relics before the altar of the Apostles (which they also call the altar of St. Vincent, on account of his most holy body, in the same altar then laid up) in the receptacle of one sarcophagus he placed, on the day before the Ides of March.
[7] a common memorial built above [them,] There being added also to the tomb or sarcophagus, in which the reverend Archbishop Hildebert the bones of the ten Bishops translated had laid up, without an interval two other coffins, becoming and honest, in each one separately the bodies of the blessed Aureus and Justina most reverently he placed; and a double pavement spread above, the surface of the earth he leveled. In which place, after the Finding of the Saints, three solemn memorials were built: which, in a tetragonal form contiguous, nay continuous, with a marble flooring disposed, from the earth a little to rise seem; of which still vestiges remain. To which memorial of the Saints how many and how great benefits of miracles and graces, afterward illustrious with many miracles. by their merits, the wondrous in his Saints Lord deigned to work, neither can the tongue report, nor would the writer's pen suffice to explain. Let it be permitted here to me Sigehardus's text to interpolate with a few verses, by which the memory of the aforenoted translation consigned a Poet far more ancient than he (if I am not mistaken), dug up by our Knackrich.
He who from Boniface first merited the Pallium, An old poem on this matter, This Father Hilwert, the twelfth Archbishop, Found the venerable bones of the Fathers once, left Within the most sacred basilica now of Hilary, From which hither he conveyed in order the ten ancient ones; That the distinguished place might preserve the pledges for the worthy. Attending to their merits, and likewise their pious deeds, He makes them as fellow-brothers collateral to Auraeus, He effects [it], and in this built tomb enclosed them; he notes this was done, 14 March. Of Christ nine hundred, ten thrice, once five thou readest the years, And the fourteenth light Martius wishes me to add.
This day was in the year 935, in which Easter was to be celebrated on 29 March with the Dominical letter D, the Saturday before Passion Sunday.
C. XVI.
[8] But the very place (says Sigehardus further) where the holy bodies of the blessed Martyrs had been laid up (as already has been said) afterward was not made sufficiently certain: and with the fault of oblivion and the length of time intervening, by the very Brethren of the church it was in a certain manner unknown. They lay hidden therefore after this from the memorable Hildebert Holy burial, or if anyone wish to say translation, and so they lay hidden until 1137, of the most blessed Martyrs Aureus and Justina the pledges, in the bosom of mother earth concealed, up to the time of the Emperor Lothair. Which Lothair, Duke and Prince of the Saxons, succeeded Henry the fifth of this name in the Roman Empire, after about two hundred and two years; for in the eleventh year of this empire, which was of the Lord's Incarnation the one thousand one hundred thirty-seventh, of our holy Patrons often named the bodies, with the Lord God revealing, were manifested in this manner. when in the renovation of the old pavement When among the Brethren of that church, namely of St. Alban, it was not ambiguous, that the Relics of the holy Aureus and Justina with their companions rest in the same church; yet in what certain place, where they lay hidden laid up, was utterly unknown. Certain therefore of the faithful, by a religious mind and good spirit led, by a special devotion toward the church of St. Alban incited, its pavements, consumed and worn by excessive age, to the honor of God and the Saints, and for the remission of their sins, at their own expense determined to renew. Where while of the old pavement was taken away the surface, there were found suddenly sarcophagi, or coffins as much in quality as in quantity from one another differing, of many and of diverse time Saints the bodies or ashes containing: of which a certain part into the earth whence it was seemed to have returned, a certain quite incorrupt surpassed the whiteness of a lily, the coffins of all uncovered, the glory of the future resurrection forewarning; a certain part of them too ruddier than old ivory, still moist with fresh blood as if in that very point of time it had been shed, of their passion and faith the indications most open and most evident presented. Among these coffins indeed of the holy Aureus the Bishop and Justina the Virgin his sister the bodies, by the burial of the ten Bishops, whom the memorable Hildebert the Archbishop a little above I mentioned to the Church of St. Alban to have translated, the bodies of Saints Aureus and Justina were found. with joy were found. But by what merit of sanctity with God they shine, attests (as has been said) at their venerable Relics the grace of miracles exhibited; nay, what daily ceases not to be exhibited by the Saints' merits, the multitude of graces. But the history of the Finding of the holy Aureus and Justina, and also the miracles, which both before and after their finding the Lord ceases not to work, to the full he who desires to know, let him read the booklet of Goswin the monk, to Adalbert of the holy Mainz See Archbishop, from Blessed Boniface the twenty- sixth, published on this; and there he will find, at what time, in what order, and the miracles described. and with what graces of miracles the blessed Martyrs' Relics, above gold and topaz precious, he revealed, who his Saints worthily glorifies.
ANNOTATIONS* * C. XIII
* * C. XIV.
nay 300
§. II. The bodily presence of the Saints confirmed by miracles; a double finding of several others.
C. XVII.
[9] Because it was doubted sometime among strangers, whether truly the bodies of the blessed Aureus and Justina in the Church of St. Alban rested, or not; to take away all doubt of this kind from the hearts of the faithful, two things worthy of relation to this little work I have judged to be inserted; one namely before and the other after the holy finding of the Saints of whom we speak, At a station in St. Alban's, the Clergy and people gathered miraculously wrought in this manner. It was the solemn day of Palm Sunday, on which of all the Collegiate churches the common station at the church of St. Alban is wont, by approved and ancient custom, to be celebrated. And when to the joy of so great a festivity a multitude of the city not small had come together; and with each holding their several places with their companions in the Choir's places, both Canons and Monks with much reverence were intent on the divine offices; a certain one of the people careless, and (as can be presumed) less devout, the reverence of the place not fearing, ignorantly straying, the aforesaid sepulcher of the ten Bishops and of the holy Aureus and Justina climbed, a certain [man standing on the Saints' sepulcher,] and suddenly his knees let down and weakened upon the tomb of the most blessed Virgin and Martyr Justina half-alive he sat down; and emitting a horrible sound of a dire voice, those singing psalms in the Choir, not without great terror and admiration, he silenced. But with those running to him who near stood; when, he being lifted outside the threshold of the church, [and] water put into his mouth, as is wont to be done, he himself at last, his strength resumed, scarcely breathed; the bystanders began from him to inquire solicitously, what was the cause of a voice so clamorous and so unexpected a fall. To whom he, as he could, answering; "I marvel," he said, "that this from me you wish to learn, which with your eyes all who here have been present, with me alike have seen. by St. Justina appearing, he is struck. For when upon the sepulcher ascending there myself to restrain I thought; suddenly a person excellent, fair in face, in the habit of a virgin, from the tomb came forth; and a blow, which scarcely a man would bear, to me giving in the face, me now half-dying so to cry out and fall compelled." O praiseworthy dispensation of the divine operation, whose nod, the fault of ignorance correcting, to the offender gave understanding through the vexation. From that time therefore, all doubt taken away about the possession of so precious a treasure, not so much begun as renewed, to God and the Saints there grew reverence, by their sacred merits an end in no way to have.
[10] In the year likewise after the holy Relics were found upon itself spent, and with innumerable to the Saints' memorial benefits of miracles exhibited; In the year 1138 the deceased Sacristan appearing to a Recluse, when (as above said) whether these things by the merits of the Saints Aureus and Justina were done, and whether truly there they rested, still some doubted; to a certain Nun, a religious woman and devoted to God, at the same Monastery enclosed (for in ancient times a cell of Recluses among us existed, to the monastery wholly contiguous, so that one and the same Monastery and cell had on one side a wall.) A Brother a certain Monk of that church, who once a faithful guard of the same Monastery had been, and already long since from life had departed, through a vision appeared. And calling her by name, whether she slept he asked. She denying that she slept, this [man] who appeared subjoined; "Doubt not," he said, "but for certain know thou and any faithful, the benefits and grace of miracles, which in this, with God granting, manifoldly are exhibited church, [are] the most sacred virgin and Martyr Justina's, he bids her be certain of the presence of each Saint. in this truly resting basilica, suffrages." But she, now made more cheerful, "And what," she said, "Reverend Father and elder, of the Blessed Pontiff and Martyr Aureus, the virgin's brother, dost thou say?" To whom he: "the same," he said, "which of the sister Virgin, all ambiguity utterly removed, mayest thou feel and firmly believe, thou and any faithful Christian, of the brother." And these said, there disappeared the vision which was speaking to her: and because these two miracles therefore here are inserted, as has been aforesaid, that it may not be permitted to anyone to doubt that the bodies of the holy Aureus and Justina, nay even of their Companions, in the church of St. Alban, and not elsewhere, all doubt cast away, repose.
[11] Here further it helps to interpose, what Sigehardus, whom we transcribe, Many other Martyrs buried on the same mount, about others found on the same mount bodies in chapter VI had premised, in these words: "Of the ancient and very old [men] a skillful and faithful, to our elders handed, relation to us has come; that a certain Duke (as is truly presumed) Catholic, with a great army of mixed sex, on that very mount was killed and buried: who, of what profession he was, since neither his history, nor the ancients' relation teaches, after many courses of times shone forth evidently; although not at one and the same, they are found in the year 1175, nay at diverse times, the indications of their faith were disclosed. Finally in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1175, but after the finding of the holy Aureus and Justina in the 38th year, with the Roman Emperor Frederick the first of this name reigning, but the holy Mainz See's Chair Conrad the Archbishop after Blessed Boniface the thirtieth governing; he who in his Saints is glorious and wondrous, God, and who the hidden things of mysteries reveals, of his Elect, whose bodies on the Southern side of the monastery of St. Alban lay hidden, and again in the year 1267 at one time deigned wondrously to reveal. And likewise a second time in the year 1267, with the Roman Empire then vacant, but to the Mainz Chair with the glorious Werner the Archbishop, from the Pontificate of the kindly Boniface the thirty-sixth presiding, the benefits multiplied, of those who had remained the pledges, a revelation the Lord deigned to repeat.
[12] That as well first as second finding of the blessed Martyrs, or revelation, because sufficiently by our predecessors for the memory of posterity it has been noted in writing, it here in silence, as known, I have judged should be left. This one thing certainly to ratify their glorification let it suffice, with certain indications of true martyrdom and sanctity. that signs most evident and most known, of faith, Martyrdom, and their sanctity, with God revealing, to our people manifestly shone in our times. Of faith indeed; because, their sepulchers opened, which although for their multitude the number exceeded, yet very accurately and honestly had been made, the sign of our salvation in the stones closing the sepulchers within and without carved for the most part we proved: but of their Martyrdom from this an evident judgment was disclosed, The history of the deed done is wanting. because in their very sepulchers certain bodies without heads, certain heads too without bodies, the truncation of feet or hands, or of other members the defect we found: which on account of the impediments of the persecution to have been done we do not doubt. But of their sanctity now there is no need to seek a reason, since in our days an innumerable of each sex and age people, at their most sacred Relics from divers languors healed, their sanctity's merits by experience have taught, and daily to teach cease not." Thus far in the cited place Sigehardus: but to wish rather than to hope it is permitted, that those writings about the double finding of those Saints be found.
§. III. A new finding of the Saints at the end of the 13th century. Relics elsewhere.
C. XVIII.
[13] To the principal proposal about Saints Aureus and Justina, returning the pen, "what in our times," says Sigehardus, "about their sacred Relics was done, briefly and faithfully let it study to explain. For in the year after the last, which (in num. 8) we forepalated, finding of the Saints, the one hundred sixtieth, In the year 1297 the Saints' sepulcher opened, which was the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand two hundred ninety-seventh, with Boniface the Pope the eighth of this name the Apostolic See governing, and with the fasces of the Roman empire by Adolph the King exalted, but of the holy Mainz Church with Gerard the second of this name the Archbishop, from Blessed Boniface the thirty-eighth, presiding; the church of St. Alban being now destroyed without hope of better restoration, on account of its excessive age, in that part, in which the precious Relics of the Saints were kept, in the place which already above has been assigned, the Brethren thought, the pledges of their holy Patrons, by a type of devotion, from the earth to raise; the bodies of Saints Aureus and Justina are translated: and in more becoming, and to their Sanctity more congruous coffins to be preserved to commit. Wherefore, a religious counsel held about so pious a work, with the Canons of the greater Church of Mainz at their request coming with a solemn procession, the place of the Saints' burial with the highest reverence and devotion they opened; and the most precious treasures of their Relics, just as by the venerable Lord Hildebert the Archbishop there laid up they had been, in the manner above expressed through all things they found. Which with great fear and joy, praises to God sounding and canticles, reverently lifting, in honest shrines laid up, to the principal altar of the monastery of St. Alban, with hymns and songs of praise, they translated. These too at the petitions of the aforesaid Canons, which their very devotion seemed to bring forth, his arm is given to the Canons. the Brethren of the oft-named Church humbly assenting, a solemn part of the holy Relics, namely the arm of the most sacred Virgin and Martyr Justina, to them as a special reward, a noble gift and excellent present, in sign of fraternal union and pledge of mutual friendship with a cheerful mind gave; which indeed in the Cathedral Church of Mainz at St. Martin's, brought from the house, with much honor and veneration is kept."
[14] Happy therefore I would call the city of Mainz which by the patronage of such Patrons subsists; The other Saints whose bodies or Relics [are at St. Alban's;] happier the church of Mainz, which by such eminent Martyrs' Martyrdom is adorned; and most happy St. Alban's basilica, which by the bodily presence and suffrage of their Relics to be adorned merited from the Lord. Happy Society! blessed college! Holy congregation, of so many witnesses of Christ in the church of St. Alban, as in the house of a great householder united! There the Lord of the house, the renowned and glorious Martyr Alban, with hospitality fostering pleasantly that great nursling of Spain Vincent, Martyr and Deacon, by the orthodox Emperor Charles thither translated: there Aureus the Bishop and Martyr, namely, Vincent, Theodore, Sergius Martyrs. protector of his See and singular Patron; there his sister, Virgin and Martyr, Justina, among guests so excellent not the lowest, of the Lord's family the chief Patroness. Thee too, renowned Martyr of Christ Theodore, with that blessed Sergius the chief-officer (primicerius), most welcome guests here, nay special patrons of our church we venerate.
[15] And shall the Confessor of the Lord, kindly Justinus, Justinus the Confessor from this most sacred fellowship suffer thee to be excluded? Far be it. For thee, a most welcome newcomer in this fellowship of Saints, transmitted to us thy Basilica of Heiligenstadt; a spiritual and special daughter of the church of St. Alban. Still are in this number, dedicated to God, the virgin Innocentia, and her mother Blessed Vincentia: whom, Patrons of our place and propitious Protectresses, Innocentia and Vincentia. from the parts of Italy from the city of Ravenna to this most blessed fellowship the Divine clemency directed, with Oggarius after the Pontificate of holy Boniface the fifth Archbishop of Mainz, translating them. In such Athletes named and chief glories golden Mainz. In these so eminent Fathers, chief Patrons and Protectors, the church of St. Alban flourishes; and the whole of Germany glories. Although besides these, in the very basilica or mount, infinite bodies of Saints are contained; whose bodies although to us unknown, God however of all knows the names. Whence let it suffice to any Christian there faithfully their suffrages to seek and efficaciously to obtain the suffrages, since to no one asking in right faith, and not hesitating; by their patronage would the Lord deny the desired benefits.
[16] Of St. Alban we shall treat on the 21st of this June; of St. Vincent we treated on the 22nd of January, and of his Body or Relics translated into various regions; yet there is not named the Mainz church of St. Alban; accordingly in the supplement of that month also the cause of the people of Mainz will come to be treated. The head thither by Charlemagne translated Serarius (book 1 chapter 17 on the Mainz Saints) numbers in the 4th place. Theodore and Sergius the same passes over, nor whose these Relics are, in the concurrence of several Martyrs of the same name, is it easy to define. St. Justinus the Confessor's feast solemnly, with 9 Lessons to be venerated, is prescribed in the more ancient Breviaries of Mainz on the 4th of August; which why in the Breviary of the year 1570 it was omitted, I know not; unless perhaps, because that feast, proper to the monks of St. Alban, did not concern the Canons of Mainz. Meanwhile I desire to be taught, what is that Heiligenstadt basilica of St. Justinus, whence the taking away either of the Body or of a signal Relic is indicated. Thus far nothing nearer occurs than Hoogstetten in Swabia; but too uncertain is the conjecture founded on the mere affinity of the name. But if anyone about such a Confessor's Life or miracles knows anything, and what he knows suggests, he will find us grateful at the aforenoted day, the 4th of August. Of Saints Vincentia and Innocentia's translation made to Mainz in the year 824, we treated on the 1st of February at the Life of St. Severus, the Husband and Father; where in the Supplement it will be permitted to add, what here is said about the other translation to the church of St. Alban.
[17] In the Martyrology of the Church of Prague (that the rest about Saints Aureus and Justina I may pursue) thus it is read: St. Aureus's arm and St. Justina's head, "On the 16th of the Kalends of July. In Mainz the feast of Aureus, Archbishop and Martyr, of whom a part of the Arm Charles the King (IV) obtained in the monastery of St. Alban in Mainz, and adorned gave to the church of Prague. On the same day, the feast of Justina Virgin and Martyr, sister of St. Aureus, of whom the Head in the same monastery obtained Charles, and gave to the church of Prague." That Martyrology was composed, or rather written, and with its own additions augmented, in the 15th century at most; and remaining among us for several years, at last it was found and restored to Father Gamans who had lent [it], the things which were proper being transcribed. given by Charles IV to the church of Prague in the year 1354. The very letters of Charles, to all the Estates of the Kingdom of Bohemia, given at Mainz in the year 1354, on the 4th day of January, about these and several other distinguished Relics, on the German journey by him acquired, recites whole in the Phosphorus of the Metropolitan St. Vitus church Thomas John Pessina, of that very church Dean and afterward Bishop of Samandria in Hungary, page 433 and following; where among other things, "in the city of Mainz, by the Venerable Archbishop and Abbot of the monastery, given to him in that very monastery," he reckons a great part of the body of Blessed Alban, a great part of the head of Blessed Justina Martyr and Virgin, and a part of the Arm of Blessed Aureus the Martyr, the first Bishop or Pontiff of Mainz.
[18] Of St. Justinus the Martyr's Relics, from Heiligenstadt probably to Corbey in Saxony brought, Something of St. Justinus sent to the same from Corbey in the year 1375. and in the year 1375 by Bodo the Abbot to the same Charles sent, I treated in num. 24 of the preliminary Commentary. Here I add, that they either were not added to the Relics of the church of Prague or of the Karlstein citadel, or hidden lie under the name of St. Justina: for Pessina the Dean, professes that nothing of Justinus he found, page 477 of his Phosphorus: but in the Consignment of Relics, described in the year 1379, namely only four years after the aforesaid donation; and again in that which was written in the year 1387, thus to be read he found: "Likewise a rib of St. Justina, Martyr of Auxerre, perhaps a rib, hidden under the name of Justina. in gilded silver. Likewise a rib of St. Zophia the Virgin, similarly encircled with gilded silver." But the Dean seems to presume, that by an error it was made, that it was so written; and with the inscriptions lightly changed it ought to have been read: "A rib of St. Justinus the Martyr, A rib of St. Zophia the Virgin of Auxerre." But Sophia or Zophia not only do I not find at Auxerre, but neither in all the rest of Gaul; a Justina the Virgin, I know not which, on the 30th of December names Henry Canisius in the German Martyrology: I confess that to me about Justina and Sophia, there named, nothing is clear: of Justinus's relics sent from Corbey I cannot doubt; but that from Heiligenstadt they were received I think can by a probable conjecture be held.
APPENDIX D.P.
On the Heiligenstadt church of the Saints.
Aureus the Bishop, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Justina his Sister, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Justinus the Deacon, Martyr at Mainz (S.)
Many other Martyrs at Mainz and Heiligenstadt (SS.)
FROM A MS.
§. I. The first restoration and dedication of the Dagobertine church of the Saints in the 9th century, under the title of St. Martin, and the Privileges granted to it.
[1] The excellent diligence of our Knackrich deserves, that what he in honor of the holy Aureus and Justinus laboriously collected from the authentic monuments of the aforetitled church, The liberality of the Emperor Henry. by I know not what chance in our College found, and now at last to the Chapter restored, be brought into public notice. After therefore he has sufficiently taught about the first origin of that very place from some of the Frankish Kings, and that probably Dagobert, derived; he proceeds to declare to what Lords it successively obeyed, and first to the Frankish Kings he substitutes the Counts of Thuringia, the first Church built over the Holy Bodies whom the Archbishops of Mainz succeeded, not only in the full possession of the city of Heiligenstadt, but of the rest of Eichsfeldia gradually by the purchase of various allods in it; and to the great benefit of the saints Patrons there he imputes, that the Catholic faith hitherto there has been preserved under the obedience of the Elector and Archbishop of Mainz, though so far from its Metropolis and from the surrounding towns of heretics often to defection solicited, with arms even applied to the persuasion. by their name it seems to have been named.
[2] But as by the perpetual tradition of the elders it is believed that the first church there over the Saints' bodies found there was built, so it is credible that by their name the same too was called from the beginning; and that this name long remained for the Choir, A new [church in the year 1363 is dedicated on 1 November.] which must have been ample enough: since in it St. Willigis the Archbishop is read to have consecrated St. Burchard Bishop of Worms in the year 992; the old church which before the same Choir then still stood was afterward rebuilt into a greater and ampler form, which Rabanus Magnentius Maurus, the sixth Archbishop of Mainz, dedicated on the Kalends of November, just as is read written on the back of the Diploma given in the year 1363 by Gerlach the Archbishop, and it is added: "See the enclosed charter." But such a charter has perished. But by that diploma the Archbishop grants that that Dedication, to which in that most cold region not without trouble was being approached in wintertime, at the beginning of these Kalends, transferred to the day of the blessed Martyrs Aureus and Justinus (about, that is, the year 1280), should be transferred again to the second weekday of Pentecost; [this feast is transferred to 16 June and thereafter to the second weekday of Pentecost] I believe so that all the inhabitants throughout the Eichsfeld—for whom the day of the Saints, festive for the Heiligenstadt people alone, was not a holiday free from servile work—might be able to come there without loss, through the convenience of a day commonly kept as a holiday by all. It runs thus.
[3] Gerlacus, by the grace of God Archbishop of the holy See of Mainz, Archchancellor of the Holy Empire throughout Germany, to all the faithful of Christ to whom the present letters shall come, eternal salvation in the Lord. Our devoted ones established in our Province, the Dean and Canons of the Church of Heiligenstadt, of our diocese, have humbly petitioned us that the feast of the Dedication of the aforesaid Church, which is customarily celebrated on the day of the blessed Martyrs Aureus and Justinus, we would deign to transfer to the second weekday immediately following the day of Pentecost, by the authority of Gerlacus Archbishop of Mainz for certain reasons alleged by them before us. Since therefore it ought not to be judged reprehensible that, considering the circumstances of place and time, those things which were less providently ordained should be reformed for the better; assenting to the prayers of the said Dean and Canons, we have judged the aforesaid feast of the Dedication to be transposed to the said second weekday, the aforementioned and other certain reasons moving us to this: establishing and ordaining that it, with its Octaves henceforth, be devoutly celebrated each year with divine Offices and other due and customary solemnities on the aforesaid second weekday. And that the same church of Heiligenstadt may be more frequently venerated by all the faithful of Christ; to each and every one truly penitent and confessed, who come to it on the aforesaid feast of the Dedication and through its Octaves, for the sake of devotion; trusting in the mercy of almighty God and in the merits and authority of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, as well as of Saint Martin our Patron, we mercifully relax in the Lord forty days of the penance enjoined upon them: and nonetheless all and singular the Indulgences, granted to the said Church on the feast of this Dedication by any Catholic Archbishops and Bishops having the grace and communion of the Apostolic See, in so far as we lawfully can, we approve and confirm. In testimony of which thing we have caused the present letters to be made, and to be strengthened by the appending of our seal. Given at Heiligenstadt, the 17th day of the month of June, in the Year of the Lord 1363. The same is found to have confirmed it in almost the same words by Gerlacus's successor John in the year 1371.
[4] Serarius in book 1 chapter 30 teaches that the Metropolitan church of Mainz was formerly dedicated in honor of Saint Stephen: but when Archbishop Willegisus had built a new temple, which is called Saint Stephen's, that one was changed to the honor of Saint Martin. Indeed, as is read in a certain Preface to the Life of Saint Boniface, moreover just as the cathedral of Mainz Gaul and Germany especially glory in being defended by Martin's shield, who taught those parts partly by his word while absent, partly delivered them from imminent evils by his venerable presence. So therefore, just as the Apostles too (I think Saints Peter and Paul are understood, to whom many Cathedral churches are held to be dedicated throughout the Christian world) after their passing, and several others deserved to have Pontifical Sees under the title of their name; on account, I believe, of the singular doctrine by which he so enlightened the Church of God that you would say no one closer in imitation to the first Doctors of the nations…Of these churches which I have mentioned, one is that of Tours…another that of Mainz, the third that of Utrecht. But these two, I mean Mainz and Utrecht, after very many years from his passing, on account of excessive love for him, were marked with the privilege of his memorable name: it was named for Saint Martin of Tours by Archbishop Willegisus in which to this day Martin is praised and honored by the faithful on account of the admirable and manifold healings which very many sick people there obtain from our Lord Jesus Christ, through the suffrages of so great a merit. And concerning Mainz indeed, as to the part which is most ancient, Browerus testifies that above an arched doorway these words are read: The Holy Martins, and thence is seen the effigy of the Bishop with his right hand supporting the temple, in exactly the same form in which the Cathedral is seen today, but with his left holding a book inscribed PEACE TO THIS HOUSE AND TO EVERYONE DWELLING IN IT.
[5] thus Rabanus seems to have dedicated to him the church of Heiligenstadt With the same spirit and affection as Willigisus toward the common Patron Martin, Rabanus too can be seen to have dedicated to him the new church of Heiligenstadt, the old choir remaining as it had been built by Dagobert: and from then on he was taken up into the seal both of the Chapter and of the City, with this distinction, that the Chapter uses Martin seated in Pontifical vestments in the act of blessing; while the City depicts the same as a horseman with shield and sword, the effigy of the same Saint impressed on the seals built before the old Choir and by that distinction Knackrichius thinks that the twofold jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Mainz over the Heiligenstadt people, ecclesiastical and secular, is designated—a matter which will receive some further light below from the old coins found in that district. From this they took care of that church as their own, and bestowed their favor for its advancement among the Emperors, among whom worthy to be remembered before others is Saint Henry, a notable benefactor of the same church by a diploma, Saint Henry the Emperor had given to it in the year 1022 which, out of veneration for so great a saint, the Most Reverend Dean of the Chapter wished to display to be viewed on an appended tablet in the character in which it is written: read its tenor here expressed in common letters.
[6] In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. Heinricus, by the favor of divine Clemency Emperor Augustus of the Romans. If we have striven to enrich venerable places of the Churches of God with the benefit of some gift, we do not at all doubt that this will profit Us and the estate of our Kingdom. various estates in honor of Saints Aureus and Justina Wherefore let the whole community of all the faithful of Christ and our own know how We, for the remedy of our soul and that of our Parents; as well as through the intervention of our most beloved consort, namely CUNIGUNDE the Empress Augusta; and of Aribo, the venerable Archbishop of the Church of Mainz, to a certain monastery of his, called Heiligenstat, where the precious bodies of the Martyrs Aureus and Justinus rest, for the use of the Brothers there serving God, various estates in honor of Saints Aureus and Justina one manse and two homesteads, situated in the village called Geislaha, in the district indeed of Eichesvelt, and in the County of Count Willihelmus, with all its appurtenances, lands cultivated and uncultivated, meadows, pastures, woods, hunting grounds, waters and watercourses, fisheries, roads and pathless ways, exits and returns, things acquired and to be acquired, and all other utilities however they can be said or written or named, pertaining to that manse, we grant and bestow through this our Imperial document; and we transfer it entirely from our right and Dominion into its right and Dominion: on this condition, namely, that Richbertus, Provost of the same Monastery, and those succeeding him after him, have free power over the same manse and its appurtenances, to do whatever they please for the use of the Church; all contradiction of any men of our Kingdom being removed. And that this authority of our liberality may remain stable and unshaken for all time hereafter, confirming this precept written thereon with our own hand, we have ordered it marked by the impression of our seal. The Sign of the Lord Heinricus, most invincible Emperor Augustus of the Romans. Guntherus the Chancellor, in place of Aribo the Archchaplain, recognized it. Given on the 5th day before the Ides of December, in the 5th Indiction, in the Year of the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand and twenty-two. In the year of the Lord Heinricus the second reigning, the 21st. Of his Empire indeed the eighth. Done at Gronaha.
[7] By the same good fortune or diligence with which that Henrician privilege was preserved as an autograph, certain others, more recent by a century or two, were preserved, it is otherwise known that there were vicars there in the 11th century which it is helpful to bring forward here for the sake of the Heiligenstadt people; so that it may be established how indubitably they held that Saints Aureus and Justinus suffered and were buried among them; since for their sake their church was built and enriched with various benefits. And first I note that Knackrichius indicates that he found letters written in German of the year 1100, in which mention is made of a certain sale by the Noble Lambertus of Westhusen to the Lord Henricus Heibeden, Vicar of the church of Saint Martin, for his Vicarage at Saint Lawrence's there. This I have judged worth noting so that it may be understood that the institution of Vicars, whose antiquity we were inquiring into for the Legend of Saints Aureus and Justinus chapter 3 letter E, pertains at least to the 11th century; and thus nothing, at least so far, stands in the way of the Legend itself having been written around the beginning of the same century. Concerning the other instruments which I promised, an authentic recognition made, and transcribed for me by Knackrichius, proves that, although a new parish was added by the Archbishop of Mainz Syffridus I (who held the see from about 1084 to 1059) to the old parish and city founded by Dagobert, yet nothing thereby diminished the rights of the old parish over the whole city. Now Serarius writes concerning Mainz affairs, folio 768, that that Syffridus or Sigefridus, wishing to execute the sentence of Gregory IX against married and concubinary priests by a Synod at Erfurt, was forced by a tumult that arose to leave that city along with some other Archbishops, and came to Heiligenstadt where he remained for a notable part of the year until Epiphany, and took part in all the solemnities of divine matters around the year 1073—on which occasion he can be seen to have applied his mind to instituting the new Parish, unless rather Syffridus II did this, from the year 1200 to 1225, called the Elder with respect to the third, immediately succeeding. §. II. The right of Patronage over the Churches of the new city adjudged and confirmed to the old parish.
[8] and from other privileges transcribed in the year 1338 In the name of the Lord. Amen. Through this present public instrument or transcript let it be evident to All, that in the year from the Nativity of the same 1338, in the sixth Indiction, on the sixth day of the month of November, which was the sixth weekday next after the feast of All Saints, at the first hour or thereabouts of the same day, in the Choir of the church of Saint Martin in the town of Heiligenstat before the high altar, of the diocese of Mainz, in the fourth year of the Pontificate of the most holy Father in Christ and Lord .. the Lord Benedict by divine providence Pope XII, there being established the honorable men and Lords Hartmannus the dean, Hugo the Scholastic, Theodorus the Cantor, Gotfridus the Chamberlain, and Joannes Ottonis of Aldendorf, Canons of the aforesaid Church of Heiligenstadt, in the presence of me the public Notary undersigned and of the undersigned witnesses, and to me the undersigned Notary, in their own name and in the name of the Chapter of the oft-said Church of Heiligenstat, offered certain four Privileges written below to be transcribed and reduced into public form. Which four sealed Privileges I held in my hand, read word for word and diligently examined. Of which Privileges the first was sealed with the seal of the Reverend Father in Christ and Lord .. the Lord Syffridus of happy memory, formerly Archbishop of Mainz, and of the Chapter of Mainz, fully sealed with silken threads. Of which first Privilege the tenor is as follows.
[9] that Syffridus the Archbishop Syffridus, by the grace of God Archbishop of the holy See of Mainz, Archchancellor of the Holy Empire throughout Germany. Since that which is done reasonably and in a work of Charity ought to be brought into eternal memory; We wish all the faithful in Christ who shall inspect the present document to know; that the beloved son in Christ Henricus, Provost of the Church of Heiligenstadt, for the improvement of the stipends of the Chapter of that place, and to enlarge his own salvation in the sight of the Most High; a new parish with our connivance and consent and that of the Chapter of Mainz, conferred upon his Chapter the right of Patronage of the Parish of the Old-Town in Heiligenstadt, together with the same Church and its appurtenances, as liberally as devoutly, humbly requesting from Us and the Chapter of Mainz, that whereas formerly the venerable Father and Lord Syffridus of good memory, Archbishop our Predecessor, had newly built within the bounds of the said Parish a certain village, namely the new Town of Heiligenstadt, and wished a new Parish to arise in it, whose right of Patronage should belong to his successors; and indeed because the Provost reckoned an injury thereby done to himself, in that his Parish was diminished for him..
[10] instituted by Syffridus the elder, We would deign to regard his collation made to the Chapter of Heiligenstadt as pious and to contribute to it, in the Chapter of Heiligenstadt, the right of Patronage of that new Church; which our aforesaid predecessor had acquired for us and for the Church of Mainz .. We therefore, considering the services of the said Provost, very pleasing, and that piety which in this respect he exercised toward his Chapter, attending to its advancements, both hold ratified the collation made by him, and what he requested of us we have judged ought to be more kindly granted to him. Wishing and, with our Chapter's connivance, establishing, that when the aforesaid Parishes happen to fall vacant, he subjected to the old Saint Martin's in the year 1239 the Chapter may dispose of them for the advantage of its will. Provided that neither We and our successors, nor the Archdeacon of the place who shall be for the time, be defrauded of our Rights in them. Let it therefore be lawful to no man to infringe this Document of our concession or with rash daring to contravene it. And if anyone shall attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of almighty God, of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and of blessed Martin and the sentence of our excommunication. Given at Mainz in the Year of the Lord's Incarnation 1239, on the third Ides of August, in the Tenth Year of our Pontificate.
[11] The second Privilege was sealed with the seal of the Reverend Father in Christ and Lord, the Lord Conradus, formerly Archbishop of the Church of Cologne, at that time Legate of the Apostolic See, that Conradus Archbishop of Cologne as Apostolic legate fully sealed with silken threads; of which second Privilege the tenor is as follows. Conradus, by the grace of God Archbishop of the holy Church of Cologne, Archchancellor of the Holy Empire throughout Italy, Legate of the Apostolic See, to the beloved in Christ .. the Dean and Chapter of the Church of Heiligenstadt of the diocese of Mainz, salvation in the Lord . . Although we are debtors of the beneficence of which we are capable to whatever faithful of Christ, yet to those things which redound to the advantage of the Churches we are especially bound to impart liberally the benevolence of our favor. Indeed on your part it was humbly petitioned to us that, since the revenues of your Prebends, otherwise slender and meager, on account of the malice of the present time and the disturbance of the Church in general, are very greatly diminished, to such a degree that you cannot be conveniently sustained from them; we should take care to grant you to retain for your own uses the Churches of the old and new town in Heiligenstadt, having the care of souls annexed, whose right of Patronage Syffridus of good memory, formerly Archbishop of Mainz, and Henricus, formerly Provost of your Church, with the consent of the Chapter of Mainz acceding thereto, conferred upon you and your Church with pious liberality and providence, as is said to be contained in their letters written on this matter.
[12] he confirmed such a union to the Chapter in the year 1249 We therefore, compassionating your need with pious affection and concurring with your supplications with kindly and favorable assent, by the authority of the Apostolic See which we exercise, grant to you, that you may freely be able to retain for your own uses the aforesaid Churches, whether they are vacant at present, or as soon as they shall happen to become vacant. Provided that the Churches themselves be not defrauded of the due service of divine things, and that the care of souls be in no way neglected in them, you cause them to be served by suitable Priests; reserving to them, from the proceeds of those Churches, a fitting portion to undergo the due burdens of the procurations of the Bishop and Archdeacons of the place. In other matters the Right of the Diocesan Bishop being safe … Let it therefore be lawful to no man at all to infringe this Document of our concession, or with rash daring to contravene it: but if anyone shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of almighty God and of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Cologne on the 12th Kalends of January in the Year of the Lord 1249.
[13] The third Privilege was fully sealed with silken threads with the seal of the Venerable Father in Christ and Lord … the Lord Brother Hugo, by divine compassion Cardinal Priest of the title of Saint Sabina, at that time legate of the Apostolic See: of which third Privilege the tenor is as follows. and that Hugo the Cardinal legate did the same. Brother Hugo, by divine compassion Cardinal Priest of the title of Saint Sabina, Legate of the Apostolic See, to the beloved in Christ .. the Dean and Chapter of the Church of Heiligenstadt of the diocese of Mainz, salvation in the Lord. A petition presented to us on your part contained that Syffridus of good memory, formerly Archbishop of Mainz, inasmuch as the proceeds of the Prebends of your Church were, on account of the malice of the time and the incursions of the enemies of the Roman Church, very greatly diminished, even to such a degree that you could not be conveniently sustained from them, judged with provident deliberation that the Churches of the old and new town in Heiligenstadt of the diocese of Mainz, having the care of souls, with the consent acceding both of his Chapter and of the Provost of them, who in the Church of the old town held the right of Patronage, should be conferred upon You and your Church, as is said to be more fully contained in his letters drawn up on this matter. Which collation, approved by the Venerable Father the Archbishop of Cologne, at the prayers of the Bishop of Hildesheim. then in the parts of Germany exercising the office of legation, you requested to be strengthened by the protection of our confirmation. We therefore, inclined to your prayers by reason of your devotion and the prayers of the Venerable Father .. the Bishop of Hildesheim, holding ratified and pleasing what was providently done in this respect by the same Archbishop of Mainz, confirm it by the authority of the present and strengthen it by the patronage of the present writing. Let it therefore be lawful to no man at all to infringe this document of our confirmation or with rash daring to contravene it; but if anyone shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of almighty God and of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul .. Given at Hildesheim on the 8th Ides of March, in the ninth year of the Pontificate of Lord Innocent Pope the fourth.
[14] The fourth Privilege was fully sealed with silken threads with the seal of the Reverend Father in Christ and Lord .. the Lord Gerardus, formerly Archbishop of the holy See of Mainz of happy memory. Of which fourth Privilege the tenor follows in these words: Gerhardus, by the grace of God Archbishop of the holy See of Mainz, Archchancellor of the Holy Empire throughout Germany, and likewise Gerardus Archbishop of Mainz we recognize and by this document attest; that whereas formerly there was a dispute turning between us and the beloved in Christ .. the Dean and Chapter of Heiligenstadt over the right of Patronage of the Church of the new town in Heiligenstadt; the same Dean and their Chapter fully informed us of their right by the Privileges shown to us—of the Collation of the Lord Syffridus our Predecessor of Reverend memory, made to them with the consent of the Chapter of Mainz, but also of the approbation and confirmation both of the Venerable Lord Conradus Archbishop of Cologne, and of the Venerable Father and Lord Hugo, Cardinal Priest of the title of Saint Sabina, then legates of the Apostolic See—to such a degree that we, holding pleasing and ratified a collation of this kind, and concurring with pious affection as well as consent with the approbation and confirmation made by them, wish them to enjoy peaceful and perpetual possession of that Church and quiet: so that they may serve it by themselves or through another suitable Person, against the inhabitants of the new town pretending an immunity. as is granted in their Privileges, not wishing that they be in any way molested by anyone in the presentation of persons or in other rights or things even pertaining to the same. Since we are informed by lawful documents concerning their Canonical Provision as to the obtaining of the aforesaid Church. Notwithstanding the exception of a certain exemption which those our citizens of the new town of Heiligenstadt opposed, since the same citizens failed in the proof of it in a contested Judgment before us. Given at Rustenberg on the 13th Kalends of July in the Year of the Lord 1254. In the third year indeed of our Pontificate. These things were done in the Year of the Lord, Indiction, day, month, hour, place and Pontificate aforesaid: there being present the discreet and honest men, the Lord Conradus Rathardi of Aldendorf, Vicar and Beneficiary in the oft-said Church of Heiligenstadt, and the Lord Hermannus of Gunterode, Priest, as well as Hartmannus, Ecclesiastical Subdeacon in the same Church of Heiligenstadt of the diocese of Mainz, as witnesses specially called and asked to the aforesaid matters. And I, Hermannus Bertradi of Aldendorf, Clerk of the diocese of Mainz, Public Notary by Imperial Authority, was present together with the aforenamed witnesses at the aforesaid matters, and reduced the present transcript, or the aforewritten four Privileges, into this public form, adding or diminishing nothing that changes the sense or vitiates the meaning, and signed it with my usual and customary sign, being asked and required. From these instruments, moreover, it is understood not obscurely that the right of patronage over the whole parish of Heiligenstadt belonged to the Provost and Chapter of the Martinian Church before the Archbishops of Mainz thought of instituting a new Parish there. It is moreover probable that this right flowed from no other than King Dagobert, founder and endower of the first Church there built in honor of Saints Aureus and Justinus. There are moreover also other Churches of Heiligenstadt comprised under one or the other parish, concerning which Knackrichius thus writes to me.
[15] other churches of Heiligenstadt: Saint Nicholas's After the church of Saint Martin, the little church of Saint Nicholas is believed to be the most ancient; situated on a high and almost round and pleasant hill outside the city, about two hundred paces from the city. Next to this in age is reckoned the parochial temple of Saint Aegidius, whose twin towers were built in the year 1420, as witness these unpolished verses, worthy to be cut on a stone equally unpolished, on the outside of the wall, where they are found thus: In the year a thousand, three hundreds, L X (el ix) doubled; On the feast of Vitus, so ought the letter to be read, The hands of the craftsmen began the work of the towers. It is well founded, placed on firm stone. It contains in the earth three thousand cartloads of stones: Twenty stones its depth has, Add one (foot) and it thus occupies five of space of earth. And the side of the work is numbered at thirteen feet. I said that here the year 1420 is noted, supposing that by the "eL iX" taken together is understood the number sixty and that this ought to be doubled: for thus one has one hundred and twenty. If, however, anyone should think that the fiftieth, "eL," is to be numbered by itself and only the last letter "iX" doubled, that building would belong to the year 1370.
[16] Similar to it is the temple of Saint Mary which the Society of Jesus now holds, adorned with two costly and great towers brought up to the summit out of solid stone, and that of Saint Mary. on whose lowest cornerstone toward the garden are seen incised these letters TH. 151, which perhaps it may be permitted to interpret thus, that TH signify THAUSENT, a thousand, and so the year 1151 is signified, in which the Author of these letters thought the church was first founded—an Author by no means to be believed ancient, since neither the use of ciphers, for public inscriptions of this kind, is older than a century or two. We omit to enumerate the various chapels within and without the city, testimonies of the public and constant religion among the people: the foundation of the Archisatrapy. one thing I add, says the same who is quoted above, that among the houses of the Canons surrounding the Collegiate church, no small space is occupied by the Archisatrapy or dwelling of the Gracious Vice-lord, who is the chief Judge throughout the Eichsfeld: for whose ground the Archbishop of Mainz pays to the church twelve maltera of wheat yearly; by this very thing attesting that his Predecessors were not the founders of the church and that the temporal Dominion over the city was acquired by them by Royal or Imperial bounty: for there is not produced for this any title of purchase by which it is established that certain other places of the Eichsfeld came into their property. §. III. The second renewal after the Translation of the Saints and the Indulgences granted on that occasion.
[17] After these two centuries, when nearly half had passed, it happened that the city was stormed by I know not what enemies: as we saw above. But God compensated the damage inflicted by that disaster, the sacred bones of the bodies of the Saints being raised again; with so great a concourse of the faithful to that action and abundance of alms that from them was built that solemn choir which still survives today (as I think). a new Choir is built over it Then it pleased the Canons to undertake greater things, and in place of the church which Rabanus had dedicated, now threatening ruin, to build a new one: for which it seemed good to solicit the liberality of the whole Empire, as the custom of those ages bore, then for the building of the new church the questors go around deputies being deputed by the Chapter as orators who should go around through the dioceses, instructed with letters of commendation of seven Prelates of the Eichsfeld, of whom he who is named first, of Ryphenstein, holds the Primacy over the rank of the whole region. Of the letters the tenor was as follows.
[18] By divine compassion the Abbot and Convent in Ryphenstein, in Buren, in Teistungburg, in Cella, with the commendations of the Prelates in Annenrode, in Gernrode and in Witzenhusen, the Provosts of the Churches, the Abbesses and Convents, to all the faithful of Christ salvation in him who is the salvation of all. Although the general state of the land is so turbulent that now almost all places lie subject to fires and plunderings; yet most of all our Mother Church of Heiligenstadt, with the Lord's permission, is assailed by the incursions of various men and the assaults of enemies, even to such a degree that, on account of the defect of prebendal proceeds, the Dean … and Chapter cannot serve the Lord in the same. Since therefore the aforesaid Church for the greatest part totters, and from excessive age, as is established, threatens grave ruin, for the relief and reformation of which the Dean and … aforesaid Chapter, on account of the malice of the time, do not have their own means available. We, not undeservedly compassionating the same our Mother and mercifully opening the bowels of piety, to all the Benefactors of the same confer, by the present testimony of letters, full Fraternity and participation of the Masses both for the living and the dead, of the vigils, fasts, prayers, bodily disciplines, and of all the good things which are done in our Monasteries. Given in the Year of the Lord 1276, on the second weekday after the Sunday on which "Misericordia" is sung.
[19] To these letters the Metropolitan of Mainz added his own in this manner. Wernherus, by the grace of God Archbishop of the holy See of Mainz, Archchancellor of the Holy Empire throughout Germany, and of Archbishop Werner to all the faithful of Christ established throughout the diocese of Mainz, salvation in the Savior of all. Since, as the Apostle says, we shall all stand before the tribunal of Christ, to receive according as we have done in the body, whether it be good or evil: it behooves us to anticipate the day of our final departure with works of mercy, and with a view to eternal things to sow on earth what, the Lord repaying, we may be able to gather again with multiplied fruit in heaven; holding firm hope and confidence, that he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows in blessings, of blessings shall also reap eternal life. Since therefore the beloved in Christ… the Dean and Chapter of the Church of Heiligenstadt of the diocese of Mainz, as they have taken care to suggest to us, desire to repair the Choir of their own Church, collapsed from excessive age, to the honor of God by a costly work: nor are their own means available to them for this. We ask, admonish and earnestly exhort your community, enjoining you for the remission of sins, that of the goods conferred by God you bestow pious alms and welcome subsidies of charity upon them, that by your aid the aforesaid work may be able to be completed: and that you, through these and other good things which by the Lord's inspiration you shall do, may be able to attain eternal joys. We, trusting in the mercy of almighty God, in the merits and authority of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and of blessed Martin, mercifully relax forty days of the penance enjoined upon them to all truly penitent and confessed who shall stretch out a helping hand to the repair of the aforesaid Choir: nonetheless holding ratified and pleasing the Indulgences which the Venerable Fathers, Archbishops and Bishops, have conferred for a work of this kind, or shall henceforth judge to be granted; the present ones, which we strictly forbid to be sent by questors, decreeing that, if it shall have been done, they shall lack force and, after the completion of the work, be by no means valid. Given at Weimar in the Year of the Lord 1276, on the 16th Kalends of August, in the seventeenth Year indeed of our Pontificate.
[20] Whether in the same or the following year they began to set hands to the work I do not know; this I know from Knackrichius's instruction, that either the questing was continued up to the year 1278, and again in the year 1278 with letters of the other Bishops or was then taken up again with new fervor, and that to that end are found letters which Thomas of Masovia gave, on the 8th Kalends of March; Fredericus of Merseburg, on the day before the Kalends of March; Ludolfus of Halberstadt, on the 4th Ides of April; and Wernherus of Kulm, on the 8th of May, all of the same or similar tenor. Knackrichius thought it enough to subjoin the Halberstadt copy as a specimen of the others, and it is as follows.
[21] Lutolfus, by the grace of God formerly Bishop of the Church of Halberstadt, Indulgences offered for visiting the Saints to all who shall inspect the present writing, salvation in the true Savior. Desiring to invite any of the faithful of Christ to works of piety by a special reward, trusting in the mercy of almighty God and in the merits and authority of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, to all truly penitent and confessed who shall devoutly come to visit the Relics of the blessed Martyrs Aureus and Justinus, at the Church of Heiligenstadt of the diocese of Mainz, or shall stretch out a helping hand to the same Church, we mercifully relax forty days of criminal sins, a year of venial ones and a carene of the penance enjoined upon them: the consent of the Venerable Father the Archbishop of Mainz acceding. Given in the Year of the Lord 1278, on the fourth Ides of April.
[22] and in the year 1328 others are obtained More copious indulgences also were obtained from the prelates residing in the Pontifical Curia at Avignon in the year 1328 under the tenor of letters of this kind. To all to whom the Present ones come, We, by Divine compassion, Bonifacius of Sultaniyah, Guilielmus of Trieste, Antonius of Sagona, Joannes of Serbia, Melletius of Gallipoli, Joannes of Amelia, Jordanus of Acerno, Rudolfus of Syrikum, Madius of Demetias, and Curatius of Senong, Bishops, eternal salvation in the Lord. The Splendor of the Paternal glory, who illumines the world with his ineffable brightness, then especially follows with benign favor the pious vows of the faithful hoping in his most clement Majesty, when their devout humility is aided by the merits and prayers of the Saints. Desiring therefore that the collegiate Church of blessed Martin of Heiligenstadt of the diocese of Mainz, and the Chapel of Saint Lawrence annexed to it, be frequented with fitting honors and continually venerated by the faithful of Christ; to all truly penitent and confessed who shall visit the same Church or Chapel on the festivities of the Nativity, Circumcision, Epiphany, the Lord's Supper, Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, on the several festivities of the blessed Virgin Mary, All Saints, Saint John the Baptist, the Holy Cross, Michael the Archangel, the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, Andrew and Bartholomew, Luke the Evangelist, and all the other Apostles and Evangelists, of Saints Lawrence and Vincent: Aureus and Justinus: Sergius and Bacchus, Vitus and Gallus Martyrs; of Saints Nicholas, Martin, Gregory, Aegidius, Clement, Antony, Ambrose, Augustine, Brictius and Blaise, Confessors; of Saints Catherine, Mary Magdalene, Margaret, Agnes, Gertrude, Agatha, Dorothy, the eleven thousand Virgins, on the Dedication both of the Church and of the Chapel aforesaid, and through the Octaves of the aforesaid festivities having Octaves, and on each Sunday and Saturday of the whole year, for the sake of devotion, pilgrimage or prayer: as well as those who shall stretch out helping hands to the fabric, lights, ornaments, or any other things necessary to the said Church or Chapel: or who, laboring at their last, shall bequeath anything of their means to the said Church or Chapel: or who shall be present at Masses, Sermons, or other Divine offices or at the burials of the dead, praying for the dead there: or who shall follow the Body of Christ, or the holy Oil, when they are carried to the sick: or who, at the evening ringing of the bell, on bended knees shall say the Ave Maria three times, as often as they shall devoutly do the aforesaid or any of the aforesaid, trusting in the mercy of almighty God and in the authority of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, we each of us mercifully relax in the Lord forty days of Indulgences of the penances enjoined upon them: provided that the will and consent of the Diocesan accede to it. In testimony of which we have ordered the present letters to be strengthened by the appending of our seals. Given on the ninth Kalends of July in the Year of the Lord one thousand three hundred twenty-eight.
[23] After these and similar other diplomas had been produced, employed as a precaution against any chances of the times, the archive being restored, the old charters of the privileges are rewritten I know not when (for the year is not expressed) the precaution was taken of transcribing the so-called authentic copies in this manner. Ernestus Hopphe, official of the Provostry of Heiligenstadt of the diocese of Mainz. By the present public instrument we make known to All, that there having been established before us in judgment the honorable men Joannes of Roden the Cantor, Joannes Archfeld, Martinus Dingelstede, Bertholdus of Hewenschusen and Wigandus of Cassel, Canons of the already said Church of Heiligenstadt, they exhibited, presented and showed before us and a public Notary and authentic persons worthy of faith undersigned, certain Privileges or letters of incorporation of two, namely of the Parochial Churches of Heiligenstadt of Saint Mary and Saint Aegidius: together with other gracious letters in order written above, around the year 1370 containing in themselves Indulgences and Fraternities piously granted and bestowed upon the same Church of Heiligenstadt of the aforesaid diocese of Mainz, sealed with the seals of Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots and Provosts, hung with silken threads and little red cords, with parchment knobs and bolts, not abolished, not suspect, not erased, not cancelled nor vitiated in any part of them, but altogether lacking every defect, as appeared at first sight: which letters indeed the aforesaid Lords earnestly petitioned to be transcribed and reduced into public form by our ordinary authority and decree. So that, the copies of the present transcript being seen, full faith may henceforth in all things and through all be given to the same letters, both in the Roman Curia and outside, and elsewhere where this shall be necessary, just as to the original letters: to all and singular of which we interposed our ordinary authority and decree, omitting, for the sake of brevity, to make any mention at present of the engravings, surrounding letters and images of the seals of the same letters. In testimony of all which, we have ordered the present letters or present public instrument to be subscribed and published by Henricus of Worbizen, the public Notary undersigned, and we have caused it to be strengthened by the appending of the seal … of the Venerable Father Hermannus, Abbot of the Monastery in Ryphenstein, and of our officialate, and of the honorable Lord Krafft, Provost of the Monastery in Buren … Thus far the copies, except for the two mentioned above. The year is not added, but from other acts drawn up in the years 1369, 1374, 1375, 1378, some of the aforenamed Canons being present, we can conjecture that the matter was carried out around those same years; if a complete catalogue of the Cistercian Abbots of the Monastery of Ryphenstein were available, this would be more certainly defined: now the one we have, collected from the surviving monuments by the Most Reverend Philippus Busse, elected around the year 1589, shows no other Hermanns than those who lived in the years 1309 and 1467.
[24] Similar to this is what Dietherus the Archbishop gave in the year 1461, except that the name Justinus, expressed by his predecessors, is changed into the name Justina, whether by chance or by design—God knows. The diploma itself runs thus. Dietherus, by the grace of God elected and confirmed of the holy See of Mainz, Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire throughout Germany and Prince Elector, to the Honorable .. Dean and Chapter and the several Persons and Beneficiaries of the Churches of Saint Martin, blessed Mary and Saint Aegidius of Heiligenstadt, Plebans and vice-Plebans of our diocese, our devoted beloved ones, eternal salvation in the Lord. After the manner of the Indulgence or grace made to you by Theodoricus our Predecessor of happy memory through certain annual feasts succeeding by revolution, especially that you may be able to observe the divine offices in your said Churches with doors open and bells rung on the feasts of All Saints, the Ascension of the Lord, Corpus Christi, the blessed Virgin Mary, on the days of the Dedications of the said Churches and through their Octaves, the Lord's Supper, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Pentecost, the Epiphany of the Lord, John the Baptist, Cyriacus the Martyr, Catherine the Virgin, Lawrence; the Patrons of the said Churches, namely Saints Martin the Confessor, his Translation, Aureus and Justina, Sergius and Bacchus the Martyrs and Aegidius the Confessor, Michael the Archangel, the Circumcision of the Lord and all the Apostles, the Nativity of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, on all Sundays through the circle of the year, and in the year 1461 as well as the commemoration of all holy souls, and on the Anniversaries of the most serene Lord Dagobert, formerly King of the Franks, of the Reverend Father Adolphus, formerly Archbishop of Mainz, and likewise on the four anniversaries of the Fraternity of the said Church of Saint Martin; to you and to each of you we impart the faculty out of special grace, and that the effect of all sentences, of the cessation of divine offices and of interdict, laid or to be laid by our authority or that of our Judges subject to us, or even by virtue of the statutes of the sacred Provincial Council of Mainz observed or to be observed, on any of the said days ought to be removed and also relaxed by our authority. Which also we, by the same authority, from now as then, and from then as now, in the name of God in these writings remove and relax. So however that, the aforenoted feasts and days being past, the said sentences remain in their force, as before, provided also that the excommunicate and by name interdicted be, during the time of this relaxation, as is of right, excluded from the divine offices. In testimony of which thing our seal is appended to the present. Given at Aschaffenburg on the penultimate day of the month of July in the Year of the Lord one thousand four hundred sixty-one. §. IV. The annual Procession with the relics.
[25] The 14th Century brought a deadly disaster to the city and (unless I am mistaken) also to the roofs of the church; 1 October, after the fire of the year 1333 of the memory of which, inscribed on a stone in the outermost wall of the choir, it is thus noted, marking the year 1333 and 1 October. In the year a thousand, three hundred, three tens, And three, of the Lord, on the night of Saint Remigius, This Holy City was wholly burned up, And more than two hundred perished by fire. the damage quickly repaired, Below are described the names of the Architects through whom the damage was repaired: Johannes Thene and Peter Armknecht. How long that repair required I do not know; but I understand that there are extant open letters of Indulgences given to those contributing something to the fabric in the next following year 1334, which however Knackrichius did not think fit to describe. There were then added to the same church various ornaments and benefits, two vicarages are added and namely the institution of two Vicarages under the title of Saints Aureus and Justinus and of Saint Liborius, Patron of the neighboring diocese of Paderborn, by the Lord Bertholdus Gebehard in the Year of the Lord 1458: of which foundation, because Knackrichius did not find the original letters, he did not describe the copies, although authenticated: but he indicated that it appears that before those Vicarages were instituted, an amburbal procession with the relics of the Saints had been ordained, and that there are the public letters of the Senate itself, after the institution of the annual procession but written in a rude and German style, signed in the year 1424, on the Saturday next after the feast of the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary, then falling on 1 April before the 4th Sunday of Lent, by which it acknowledges itself obligated, for eight golden Rhenish solidi received from the Chapter, to appoint each year honored and suitable men, with the bodies of the holy Patrons who, in default of Clerics, should carry the chest of Saints Aureus and Justinus, on their feast day, around the walls of the city. Armed citizens accompany the procession with drums and banners, and the Archbishop, from time immemorial, furnishes a banquet to the Senate, and to the citizens two cartloads of beer.
[26] Indeed it had profited all to have had the saints as Patrons in the year 1404, when their city was encircled by a strong army of the confederated Princes, as is read to this day in the wine market in verses ill-turned, but signifying the matter clearly enough, described thus. A thousand after the Incarnation, C four times, on the day of Margaret, to whose merits can be ascribed the deliverance of the city in the year 1404 To these add four, while John of Nassau reigns; (This man was Archbishop of Mainz, substituted for his brother Adolphus after Conrad of Weinberg in the year 1396, who sat until 1419). Henry of Brunswick, Duke Otto, the illustrious Prince Herman of the Hessians, Balthasar Prince of the Thuringians, Wilhelm Margrave of Meissen with his troop, Anhalt, Mansfeld, Rheinstein, Querfurt, Gleichen, and also Honstein, And very many others encircling this city; But the Holy City remained unconquered by these. The siege being raised, I believe that a supplication of this amburbal kind was instituted in thanksgiving due to God and the holy Patrons. Here I might add that this day is everywhere called by the Heiligenstadt people "der Gulder manner-dag," that is the day of the Golden men; perhaps with an allusion to the name of Aureus or from the gilded arms in which some were accustomed then to march.
[27] On the same day after High Mass it is customary to open the gilded chest within which the sacred bones of Saints Aureus and Justinus are kept indiscriminately (for several others, given by various Archbishops and laid in the same chest, are each marked with their names), the Dean as keeper of the key bringing it out; and the Relics, after the Mass on that day, are shown each year. and one of the larger bones is taken from it and offered to the reverent people to be kissed, and after the kiss the forehead of each is marked with the same bone. Knackrichius notes that usually a leg-bone is taken, wrapped in silk for that purpose, but cut at one extremity with a saw: the rest of the sacred bones, however (which indeed are still many; for besides several smaller ones, Knackrichius testifies that he counted the larger ones at least twenty, and of such measure that they appear to be of tall bodies)—the rest, I say, are found separately in two chests, one most ancient, the other new, placed on each side of the choir. Such a supplication, moreover, as I described above, having been intermitted for twenty years through the tumults stirred up by heresy in the previous century, in the year 1577, on the 16th Kalends of July, at the admonition of the supreme Prefect, the Relics of Saints Aureus and Justinus were again carried with solemn congratulation around the city walls; the solemnity resumed in the year 1577. as Knackrichius writes that he found in the Adversaria of our Father Kopperus, not however without an error by which the name Justina for Justinus had crept in upon him: which error was common in the previous century.
[28] the vault of the church completed in the year 1487 Now to return to the history of the church itself, although it was quickly restored to its former use, the roofs being repaired, after the fire of the year 1333; yet a vault does not seem to have been introduced into it within a century and a half: since on the same vault toward the gate is read inscribed thus: This work completed by me Johannes Wyrauch in the Year of the Lord 1487: Knackrichius however thinks that by that Chronicle inscription is noted not the time of the completion of the vault, but of some other ornament; which I leave to be judged by the Reader. As the same century was ending, the Archbishop of Mainz greatly increased the days of Indulgences to be obtained in the same church, a Bull of this kind being given: Bertholdus, by the grace of God Archbishop of the holy See of Mainz, Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire throughout Germany, Prince Elector, to the Honorable, our devoted beloved in Christ … the Plebans in our town of Heiligenstadt, salvation in the Lord. That you may observe the divine Offices in your said Churches with doors open and bells rung on the feasts of Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, and in the year 1499 the indulgences are increased by the Archbishop. Trinity, Corpus Christi; on the feast of the Visitation, Assumption, Nativity, Presentation, Conception, Purification and Annunciation of the glorious Virgin Mary and through their Octaves, the Finding and Exaltation of the holy Cross, Boniface the Martyr, Vitus, John the Baptist, his Nativity and Beheading, Aureus and Justinus, Sergius and Bacchus, and through their Octaves, Margaret, the Division of the Apostles, Mary Magdalene, Dominic, Anne, Augustine, Aegidius, Michael, Jerome, Luke, Martin the Confessor, Elizabeth, Catherine, Barbara, Nicholas, the Nativity of Christ, Stephen the Protomartyr, the Circumcision, the Epiphany of the Lord, the Conversion of Paul, the Chair of Peter and of Peter in Chains, the Sunday "Judica" until the feast of Easter and the eight following days, the Dedication, on all days of the Apostles and Evangelists, as well as on all Sundays throughout the whole circle of the year, on the four Anniversaries of the Fraternity and on the Anniversary of the most glorious Prince Dagobert, formerly renowned King of the Franks, Founder of the Collegiate Church of Saint Martin of Heiligenstadt; of the Lord Adolphus, formerly Archbishop of Mainz, buried in that Church, and of the Lord Bertholdus, formerly Bishop of Paneas, that you may be able to observe these, to you and to each of you we impart the faculty out of special grace; with the privilege of not ceasing under Interdict. and that the effect of all sentences, of the Cessation of divine offices and of interdict, laid or to be laid by our authority or that of our Judges subject to us: or even by virtue of the statutes of the sacred Provincial Council of Mainz observed or to be observed, on any of the said days ought to be removed and also relaxed by our authority; the excommunicate however and by name interdicted being excluded. Given at the citadel of Saint Martin in our City of Mainz under our seal on the twenty-seventh of the Month of June in the Year of the Lord one thousand four hundred ninety-nine. The Lord Dean, being questioned about the Anniversary of King Dagobert, replied in these words: in the Registers of this collegiate Church from the year 1563, 1564 and following, I find among the feasts of presences and of Anniversaries this notation, the Anniversary of Dagobert the King on the days next after the feast of Saint Matthias, the Anniversary for the founders. Here under the name of founders may be understood Dagobert the King and his wife and sons: but whether the first or the second cannot be clear from this, since the first died on the 13th of December; the second, at Satanas where he was slain, and is venerated as a martyr on the 17th of January.
[29] As regards Saints Sergius and Bacchus, named among the Patrons of the Heiligenstadt people, namely those who are venerated on the 7th of October, it seems that their notable relics too, translated through the holy wars from Syria into Europe, came to the Church of Saint Martin in the 13th or 14th century and soon obtained so celebrated a cult, The cult of Saints Sergius and Bacchus. that they were esteemed nearly the principal Patrons of that Church. The Mainz people, however, confident that the body of Saint Aureus as well as of Saint Justina was with them, suspected that the boasting of the Heiligenstadt people about Saints Aureus and Justinus having suffered and been entombed among them was vain. This conjecture is favored by the Bull of Paul II without any mention of these Saints but with luculent expression of the other two, given in the year 1469 with this tenor. Paul, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved son the Scholastic of the Church of Saint Stephen of Mainz, salvation and Apostolic benediction. Paul II in the year 1469 To carry out the duty of the Pastoral Office, continually solicitous, we give pleasing assent to those wishes by which from individual Churches, especially Collegiate ones, the Most High may be blessed, and the Ecclesiastical Persons established in them may enjoy abundance of temporal things, without which spiritual things cannot long subsist, and so that, to those willingly resigning their benefices to this effect, it may be usefully and wholesomely provided that they be not oppressed by want of things. Indeed a petition exhibited to us lately on the part of our beloved sons the Dean and Chapter of the Church of Saint Martin of the town of Heiligenstadt of the diocese of Mainz contained, that the Church itself is reputed very notable, ancient and excellent in those parts, and that in it the bodies of the blessed Sergius and Bacchus are preserved and held in the greatest veneration, and a great concourse of People is held to the aforesaid Church also for hearing Masses and other divine Offices: it asserts that their bodies are held there and although the fruits of the Capitular Table of the said Church were wont in former times to be so abundant that the Dean and Canons and other Persons of the same Chapter could decently live from them; yet, the whirlwinds of Wars, pestilences, calamities, hardships and other sinister events being the cause, by which those parts (alas for grief) were afflicted, they have become so slender, that the Dean, Canons and other persons of this kind cannot, according to their decency, sustain themselves from them, pay the Episcopal Dues, and conveniently bear the other burdens incumbent upon them, and that if the Churches of Saint Cyriacus in Duderstadt, he unites 2 Parishes to the Capitular Table. whose collation is known to belong to our venerable Brother the Archbishop of Mainz, and of blessed Mary and Saint Aegidius of the town of Heiligenstadt of the said diocese, which belong to the presentation of the said Dean and Chapter—Parish Churches—were perpetually incorporated, united and annexed to the same Table, the aforesaid Dean, Canons and other persons would receive great relief in their needs. We therefore, not having certain knowledge of the aforesaid, inclined to supplications of this kind… Given at Rome at Saint Peter's in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand four hundred seventy-nine, on the 13th Kalends of August, year I. §. V. Concerning the old and new Chest of the Heiligenstadt Patrons and the other reliquaries of the church.
[30] After the form of the sepulchral stone of Saints Aureus and Justinus, carved with their images, had been exhibited following the third Chapter of the Heiligenstadt Legend, the plan was, after the other things Noted on that Chapter, to treat more distinctly of the old and new chest of the Relics pertaining to them, and of certain other reliquaries kept in the same church, as containing something of the same Saints: but by some chance it happened that the leaf on which what was written about that matter was, being placed out of its proper place just at the time of printing, was passed over: wherefore receive it here, after we have given the principal monuments of the church itself to be read.
[31] That heavenly Voice, which in number 28 of the aforesaid Legend is said to have admonished that it was time that the most sacred relics of the Martyrs Aureus and Justinus, who lay in the choir, should again, on account of the storming of the city, be exhumed in the place where they poured out their blood; The marble Chest buried in the ground after the 2nd finding teaches us two things: first, that those Relics were not kept above ground by the King who found them and founded the church; but were honorably returned to him after he had transferred them into a marble tomb, in which they are afterwards said to have been found. Secondly, that the same were taken from the said tomb and again elevated on account of the future storming of the city, whence provision was made against the danger about to arise by their translation into a new shrine, [the Relics being translated into a portable shrine, it is dug up again in the year 1695] portable indeed wherever necessity should require. That that tomb was of marble is indicated to us by him who took care that it be sought out and dug up again in the year 1695, the aforepraised Knackrichius, at the end of April; and as an eyewitness he taught us that within it were found only certain fragments of the Sacred bones, such as are wont to be placed in the consecration of altars, with much dust and the rotted fragments of a certain wooden chest, and within it the fragments of the old wooden one. probably that in which the King had found the sacred bodies, which dissolved at the mere touch of the fingers. Moreover, iron hoops and the lock of the same chest were found greatly corroded with rust; a manifest sign that that chest lay long under the earth before it was placed in the marble tomb.
[32] Behold for you an accurate delineation, first of the lid A gently rising through the middle, by which the coffer was covered, six feet and a half long, its form three and a half wide: but having within a cavity B nineteen inches deep, twenty-six wide, five feet and as many inches long; so that the very stone, to which the lid is fitted from above, is everywhere five inches thick: this trough therefore, containing the abovesaid fragments of bones, and the placing in the burial-place and a wooden chest of whatever kind, was again buried under the earth immediately beneath that place where the vault of the new Choir meets in a round stone marked with the half-figures of the Saints themselves; by which, as we said above in Note H to chapter 3, it seems to have been signified that they either lay or lie there beneath. But what was done with the new shrine into which, at least for the greater part, the sacred Relics were translated, as the Legend indicates in number 30? For sustaining this seems to have been built that stone platform, which now has the form of a tomb projecting from the ground; beneath the stone tomb built above unless from the very beginning of the aforesaid translation a place had been prepared on the high altar, as we see done in various places. Be that as it may, by the fire of the year 1333 it can be believed that whatever wooden or stone thing had stood there before was burned or corrupted, but the damage being repaired, there was built over the same place that tomb which is seen to this day, of solid stone, but found wholly empty, whose appearance the little tablet placed above at the letter C offers. the figure of the last renewal of it.
[33] Its lid, not indeed of marble, but of less solid and more common ashen-colored stone, exhibits in elegant sculpture the statue of each Saint which we gave above to be viewed: the topmost stone carved with the Images of the Saints here indeed we note that from the very elegance of the sculpture it easily appears that it is not the work of many centuries; wooden valves, adhering above, fitted to this surrounding wooden enclosure (whose front face the larger tablet has more distinctly expressed), while they cover the stone, preserve the figures themselves intact, except that by some chance the outermost part of the nose on the statue of Saint Justinus is seen to be slightly worn. When Knackrichius had ordered these valves to be removed so that he might offer the painter who was to delineate the stone a free view of it on all sides, he began, over the space lying open at the margins, to feel with his fingers its circumference, in case perhaps some inscription went around it: but he found it all smooth except for a few small hollows which, the wooden enclosure being drawn back for a moment, he saw filled with pitch or bitumen: without an epitaph, but empty beneath and it was judged that these were traces of strips of brass, copper or tin fixed around and removed by a sacrilegious hand, on which had been inscribed the subject of this tomb: no other trace of violation, even the least, appeared anywhere, and so not even an indication of a cause through which the relics deposited within could be believed to have been removed. Hence the desire, not extinguished but rather stimulated, of finding some writing beneath the stone itself and perhaps several Relics within, brought on the thought of lifting the stone, although great and ponderous; which when sixteen most robust men had done with the consent of the Lord Dean, no inscription was found anywhere, nay nothing at all but the whole empty space down to the earth on which the tomb had been built directly. Then indeed, digging the ground and probing here and there with poles and a borer, they perceived under the earth a large stone, and a sound issuing as from a hollow sepulchre; and so it appeared that the abovesaid marble chest had probably never been moved from its place, after those relics which we mentioned had been removed from it. Let it remain settled, therefore, that all those which are not found within the marble chest were long ago translated into the shrine mentioned above.
[34] the old shrine behind the altar Questioned about this, Knackrichius replied that in the abovenoted year on the 5th day of June, when, going around the Choir with his fellow Father and with the Lord Cantor, he saw behind the high altar a chest fairly long, high and pointed or gabled toward the top in the manner of a tomb, which within was overlaid most amply with silver, on the outside with gold, similar to which the painter affirmed he had seen several others at Rome and at Augsburg —it was adorned with several images of the Saints, but quite covered with dust and interspersed with spurious gems and various decoration, then indeed containing sacred vestments and various things, now empty of Relics in which probably the sacred Relics of Saints Aureus and Justinus were originally kept. Then sending with other letters a rough delineation of that chest on the 13th of July, he indicated that, in the painter's opinion, it was made at that time when the art of painting in this way came into Germany (he reckoned it eight hundred years or more; I would scarcely allow it four hundred); and although it is of wood and not of such great elegance, the same painter judged that it had not been made for less than a hundred ducats: that of similar form is the one at Xanten in Cleves, which, all of gilded silver, contains the relics of Saint Victor and his fellow Martyrs of the town and Collegiate church there: it stands moreover above the altar with one end projecting over the altar in the manner in which others elsewhere too are placed, and perhaps it itself once stood thus among us also. Thus far he, who afterwards also sent it delineated more accurately, which however I do not exhibit engraved on copper, on account of the too greatly worn forms of the Saints, on whose account I should have especially wished to take care of it.
[35] This chest or shrine being thus, as I said, obsolete, since it was larger than the paucity of the Relics stored within required, and than suited the annual convenience of the supplicants, about a hundred years ago another was made, about three feet and a half long and a foot and a half wide. the Relics being translated into the smaller chest and recently examined Knackrichius, asked to send a specific enumeration of the relics themselves, summoning a Notary and witnesses, had the chest opened, and what he found within is described in this Notarial Instrument, in the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity. Of the sacred bones or Relics of Saints Martyrs Aureus, Bishop of Mainz, and Justinus his Deacon or Levite, which the Collegiate Church of Heiligenstadt, called of Saint Martin, on the faith of the Elders as such, proper and native, has kept and venerated here from time immemorial up to the present in a portable chest decorated with colors and partly gilded. 1. Some parts of the arm. 2. Some parts of the leg. 3. The bone of the Collarbone. 4. The bone Radius. 5. Bones of the Hip. 6. Some parts of the vertebrae. 7. Several others less named. All these were inspected, in the presence of the Most Reverend Lord Aureus Hunold the Dean, the Reverend Lord Ioannes Valentinus Hunold the Cantor, the Reverend Lord Ioannes Rhim the elder, the Reverend Lord Thomas Patzing Vicar and Parish-priest, the Reverend Lord Sebastianus Gobz Vicar, the most Experienced Lord Bartholomaeus Plitzenreuter Doctor of Medicine, and the Honored and discreet men and Citizens Laurentius Hartung, and Georgius Faupel, specially required for this, and Myself the Notary named below. In faith of which I have strengthened the specification placed above with the seal of my office and Notariate. These things were done at Heiligenstadt, on the Twenty-fourth of February, in the Year One thousand Six hundred Ninety-nine. Joannes Andreas Pleisser Imperial Public Notary M. in place of the seal This smaller casket is still seen exposed on the altar, opposite a certain new one made not many years ago, the little statues of the Saints around the tomb and chest which alone is carried around today with some part of the aforesaid relics. Each has inscribed the names of Saints Aureus and Justinus: of the first indeed Knackrichius writes that it is very artfully sculpted, with ten little statues at the sides of the Saints and Saint Martin on horseback in front, the same probably which had been painted in the larger shrine and sculpted on the wooden enclosure of the tomb mentioned above, which the painter judged to be from the hand of the same sculptor. They were once numbered in the said enclosure altogether twenty, of which rapacity, wantonness, or impiety carried off a great part; but the eight or nine which survive have rather often been transferred from one coffer to another. The painter passed a similar judgment on the choir seats variously and not inelegantly sculpted, nor is it contradictory that the little statues remaining in the enclosure are found more decayed, not so those which are in the seats: for these had to be of harder oak, whether older than the year 1450. those, to be overlaid with colors and gold, could be taken from linden or other less solid material. The painter's judgment is rendered more doubtful by this, that above the seats, or stalls of the Canons as they call them, there, where the Dean was wont to sit, these words run, incised in wood and overlaid with silver: In the year 1450 on the vigil of Saint Thomas the apostle that work was completed, in the year of jubilee namely under Pope Nicholas V, of which jubilee Odericus Reinaldus in his Annals testifies that there was a notable celebrity.
[36] Of equal antiquity or even greater was that great and almost Gigantic statue of Christ either scourged, particles within the wooden statue of Christ or after the scourging shown to the Jews by Pilate, long seen to hang from a certain column by iron hooks; but, together with others, being apt by excessive age or deformity to move contempt rather than devotion, removed from the church by order of the Archbishop, when this was being done certain ones of ours discovered the back hollowed out and covered with a thicker iron plate; under which was found a round reliquary containing among other particles of other saints also certain ones of Saints Aureus and Justinus, as was read on the little labels added. This reliquary was placed within the old bier before the new and lighter chest, accustomed to be carried about as said above, was made. Similar particles are held enclosed in two pectoral statues fashioned in Episcopal and Diaconal habit, and 2 pectoral ones. and elsewhere perhaps still others, so that the cause is not far to seek why so few are found in the principal reliquaries of them; to which also something could have contributed the insolence of the heretic soldiers, which certain letters note often raged in the town; and which seems even sometimes to have proceeded as far as the breaking open of the tombs. Let the monument of the Archbishop Adolphus of Nassau be the proof, in which appears not only the deformed face of the statue lying upon it, but also the joint of the stone broken through the middle. §. VI. Concerning the Castle of Dagobert and the Bracteate coins not so long ago found in the field of Heiligenstadt. Since the Heiligenstadt people, to whose honor we have woven this appendix, derive the origin of their Church and city from some Dagobert, King of the Franks, whose castle was among them, now commonly called Altenburgh; it will not be out of place to set down here a description of that place such as Knackrichius sent to me in his words. Altenburg, the castle of Dagobert King of the Franks. To relate more certain things about Altenburg, I myself betook myself there, and surveying the place diligently, I found that there still survive the walls, depressed in the earth, of a little temple or domestic chapel there, to the left of a small Choir toward the east; where I found arched and cut stones so joined together that they present the form of a tower or stone spiral staircase, through which from that side there was a descent to the little temple. its still-remaining wall-ruins To which tower or spiral staircase, from the other, that is the right side of the Choir, another similar spiral staircase or little turret seems to have corresponded, as again can be conjectured from certain arched stones, through which from that side too there was an entrance to the said lararium, furnished with two doors, which are still seen. This little temple is indeed modest, 12 wide, but about 18 or 20 feet long. In it are seen 7 columns, of stone, and small, so disposed that on the northern side three, especially of the court chapel on the southern as many and one on the western, are fixed in the wall and projecting only by half; to which in the middle of the nave three others corresponded, perhaps supporting the vault of the Chapel and a part of the building lying above.
[38] That the remaining place of the Royal habitation was fairly ample and distinguished into various chambers and recesses appears from the rubble of the walls and joined stones, the site of the whole structure very convenient. which project somewhat from the earth; the soil otherwise is barren, rocky and elevated: yet from the sides and below, it is most suitable for cultivation, fortified at the back by a steep mountain, on either side by a valley, and has a broad and pleasant prospect to the other regions. Below through the valley a double and joined river runs down, which from one of them retains the name of the Leine and near Münden empties into the Weser. The orchard of the Castle is wholly devastated except for certain adjoining fields which are cultivated yearly by the servant of the Reverend Lord Dean: many stones still cut, small and large, lie scattered and joined together to the number of some thousands. For I have no doubt that several were stealthily or lawfully carried off to the nearby villages and the city of Heiligenstadt for the building of walls and edifices in past ages. But who, after Dagobert, inhabited that dwelling for some time, has been handed down by no monuments.
[39] The little temple was for a long time filled with earth and stones, a thought arises of restoring it which were carried out nine years ago by certain devout citizens (as the leader and author of that plan, the excellent man Fridericus called Paschasius, related to me) wishing to erect there some station in honor of the Mount of Calvary, whom the very Reverend Lord Commissary and the Lord Dean, for the sake of preserving the ancient memory, prohibited from the work begun, deciding from money long ago collected to clean out better, in due time, that part of the place or chapel, and to put a roof over it on columns, so that on the feast of Saint Mark each year not only a sermon, as has been done hitherto, but also a solemn Mass could be celebrated there, in the open however, where the whole people might see. Thus far Knackrichius on the 28th of March 1694, when on the previous day certain captive diggers had been brought to the Magistrate, accused of having learned by evil arts the place of a treasure hidden beneath the little building just described, whether the treasure sought there was found is uncertain, and of having carried it off thence. And he himself indeed says that he saw, as had been pointed out to him by a rumor spread among the common people: on the right side of the spiral staircase or tower mentioned, a square opening about three spans long and wide in the wall, from which by those or others a little chest or money vessel seems to have been extracted. Since Knackrichius could neither then indicate anything else about the treasure found nor wrote afterwards, it is understood that nothing could be obtained from the captives by which it might be established that they were guilty: certain it is that three thin bracteate coins were afterwards found there; he received however an indication of a treasure once carried off thence from one of the diggers himself, confessing to him more secretly, that he and his fellows had been led into such hope by the example of a certain man of Hesse-Cassel, who was said years before to have not unhappily attempted the same crime. And indeed he himself knew a woman, who a little after he had dug there, gathering herbs around the same place, had found three coins of Imperial the size of one (Imperial coin): which, being asked by him to seek them out for inspection, she brought nothing else than a fragment of one, saying that the woman had broken up or lost the rest.
[40] This fragment, when Knackrichius had sent it to me, I recognized as the form of a most thin silver bracteate similar to those coins which I had earlier received from him, several taken from a pot which, he wrote, was found in the year 1691 farther from Heiligenstadt, describing the place and the deed thus in his letter of the year 1693, the 6th of December, with this tenor: Between Heiligenstadt and Duderstadt, which are both Cities of the Eichsfeld, distant from one another by four short hours and a journey on foot, several such found in the year 1691 at Nesselried the one looking north, the other south, lies between a village called Nesselried, in which the most Ornate and most Wise Lord Iodocus Keysenberg, Citizen and Senator of Duderstadt, has a building with an Estate of about 360 fields or half-jugera, which extend not in a continuous but interrupted series to various regions, some toward the plain, others toward the valley and a little wood through which one goes to Etzenborn, Glasenhusen, Heiligenstadt: in a village of the Eichsfeld where is seen a place of about 4 or 5 fields, in which a village is by certain tradition said to have once stood, called Dudenborn: which, on a fairly ample and uncultivated sward, by a high Cross fixed there, to which from Nesselried on the feast of Saint Mark each year a Procession is held, demonstrates the space of the old temple and cemetery.
[41] At its outermost side toward the south and the street, two fields lie, of which one belongs to a peasant of Nesselried, by ploughboys the other to the aforesaid Lord: which his bailiff Ioannes Rautz, in the Year of the Lord 1691 around the feast of Saint Michael, had ordered his sons to break up with two ploughs and prepare for sowing: of whom the youngest by birth, when he was following behind his brother who was ploughing, saw clinging to the ploughshare an iron lid among the clods, which lifting up, they showed to their elder brother who from the opposite side was busy at the same work with another plough: in an earthen pot full of them who, intending more cautiously to the furrowing, when he had come to that part of the field where the lid had been dug up, struck with his ploughshare a pot holding about two measures (a measure here is such as a healthy and moderately thirsty man consumes in a fourth or fifth fairly ample draught), made of white and rather solid clay and filled with various coins mixed with earth and cohering together in a clump; a shout arises, as is wont, among the boys: to whom the neighboring young ploughmen run together, and begin to apportion the booty by lot and as if in play, which they would even have divided equally, had not the bailiff, intervening, snatched the pot to himself. Who, as he himself related to me, the next day hastened to the weekly Fair at Duderstadt, which is distant from the place not quite an hour and a half, announced the matter to Lord Keysenberg, and showed him part of the coins; from whose part some are brought to the lord of the field which seen, one of the sons of the same Lord, Henricus by name, either ordered by his parent, or of his own accord, hardly having refreshed himself with dinner, mounted a horse, hastened to Nesselried; and extorted the pot with the coins, which he could obtain from the young men, and carried it to his parent at Duderstadt; who had part of them boiled out by a goldsmith or cleansed from dross, part melted down. The same bailiff who, by order of Lord Keysenberg, brought me back to Heiligenstadt on his horse (for I went there very recently on the feast of Saint Andrew), recounted to me on the way: that there were seen among those coins, some of gold or brass, of the size of Imperials marked only with a Cross: that there were also among them some little globules of the size of an acorn or hazelnut, of silver or gold, which the said young men, thinking them to be earth or pebbles, threw on the ground, but which, gathered afterwards by the peasants, were sold to Jews, who, having perceived the report of the matter, came at once to Nesselried to exchange old coins for new; and so much for the place of the Finding, where a house is believed once to have stood, under whose threshold in the corner the treasure was buried, as I heard partly from Lord Keysenberg and his sons, partly from the bailiff, who at the same time, when I questioned him, asserted that that field had always before been cultivated, but on that part remained as if perpetually dry and parched.
[42] At these reports, and the specimens of coins communicated, of which some were marked with the sign of Saint Martin the Bishop, others with two heads of Saints, others of Emperors or Dukes of the 11th or 12th century, I wished to obtain more, and having obtained them I at once chose the chief ones and committed them to an engraver to be carved on a copper plate; whose impressions (for the matter seemed to me worth seeking out, some of the chief are here represented. as one who had nowhere else seen such) I might send into various parts to explore the judgments of others; but there was no one who, in the French or Italian, or even German or Belgian Cabinets, however many are furnished most amply with ancient coins, indicated that such could be found. The Thuringians and Saxons alone knew those Nesselried ones, by whose judgment I have here given my plate somewhat more corrected, in no order because I could give none, the coins not yet being known.
[43] He by whose kindness we give this more corrected plate was Ioannes Christophorus Olearius, a most curious investigator of coins of this kind, and recommended by the most Famous men William Godfrey Leibniz, Counselor of the most Serene Elector of Hanover, and Wilhelm Ernst Tenzel, Historiographer of the Dukes of Saxony, and he deigned to communicate with me, along with a brief explanation of the coins themselves, his Introduction to the cabinet of bracteates: the Introduction of Olearius to such coins is praised, where he learnedly discourses on their nomenclature, material, form, use, price, and age, and a Collection of more than a hundred such, with a few elucidated, as a specimen of a greater work which he promises, of these and many others to be exhibited by engraving.
[44] The sum of the Introduction comes to this, that from "Bractea" (foil) they are called bracteates, by usage now received there among the learned, though perhaps they would more aptly be called bracteoli or bracteales, and from this their age is taught. just as "aureolus," "ferreolus"; "fluvialis," "pluvialis," "borealis," etc.: for just as "auratus," "ferratus," "laureatus," etc., properly signify the material not out of which something is made, but with which it is surrounded, so the word "bracteatus" seems more apt to signify those more solid but adulterate coins which inwardly cover the cheapness of their material of bronze or iron with a gold or silver foil: but let this question of the name pass; more to the point is what from the aforepraised Introduction may be understood, that the age of bracteates, by the more common opinion, is not raised beyond the times of the Emperors Otto: and that few of them of gold, very many of silver, of various use, size, and price, have now been dug up in several places: and the occasion of so striking them that, on account of their thinness, they admitted only on one side a type, seems to have been given by the frequent fraud, in the intervening time, of adulterating coinage, by which sub-copper or sub-iron coins were sold for gold or silver: to which fraud there was no place in the little bracteates.
[45] the occasion, But because the very thinness of these made them very fragile, it was provided by the curators of the monetary affair that they be renewed at a certain interval of years, after which the old ones kept would be worth less. So in Olearius page 16 it is provided by a certain Kulm privilege, that the said coinage be renewed only once in each decade and, as often as it shall have been renewed, twelve new coins be exchanged for fourteen old ones. For greater convenience too it was devised that ten and ten of the same kind and module be joined together, the use. and so be handed over as a single one, and counted by weight; and this seems to be confirmed, says Olearius page 16, by that supply of bracteates found at Leipzig in former years, where this was observed. The most Illustrious Count of Schwarzburg-Arnstadt, whose Coin-cabinet now numbers more than two thousand bracteates, when by my means he had received the Nesselried ones here set forth, already sufficiently used to those, to be added to them, wished to be reciprocally liberal, sending back through Olearius the distinguished gift of another twenty-five thus clustered together, which gift, although it did not come into my hands, I nevertheless wished here gratefully to acknowledge; and, the explanation of them given to me by letter without them being omitted, I pass to another, earlier, addressed to Tenzel and corresponding to our Nesselried impression. Num. I. II. III. IV.
[46] Very rarely indeed does it happen that ancient coins, thin especially silver ones, The judgment of the same Olearius on the Nesselried coins the bracteates as we call them, are brought to the cultivators of antiquities when found, since they mostly come into the hands of those who are wont either to corrupt or to melt down coins of this kind. Therefore let us greatly congratulate the most celebrated PAPEBROCH, to whom it was permitted to acquire various bracteates, of which a full urn was dug up at Nesselried, a village of the Eichsfeld below the territory of Heiligenstadt. Where it is worthy of public praise, that he wished to communicate these, engraved on copper, differing chiefly in module and figures. And since through You, most celebrated Sir, I have been invited to set forth my mind concerning the same, I could not but offer a few small observations. To me indeed in the series of these coins Frederick the Emperor occurs first, of whom we see not only the crown and the lily-bearing scepter, but also traces of an inscription. The letters, namely, --- RID --- CU --- indicate FRIDERICUM, this being attested by other coins of this kind, which are marked with the same figure and a clear epigraph. That the Cross, which he holds in his right hand, denotes the Christian religion, is manifest. For the rest it is to be noted that this is without doubt a coin of Frederick Barbarossa, the most glorious Emperor; and that the lily-bearing scepter does not always designate the insignia of the Kings of the Franks, but that such a lily was added either for the sake of ornament, or sustains the form or place of a cross, as has been observed from other monuments. This is succeeded by Coin II, in which two heads of saints are seen, in whose honor and memory a certain Temple seems once to have been built, and perhaps not without reason I refer here coin IX, illustrating it, in which S. SIMON AND S. JUDAS the Apostles appear. Such are minted at Goslar, and they are solid coins, on the reverse face of which S. SIMON AND S. JUDAS with two heads added, on the other side is read: MONETA. NOVA. GOSLARIENSIS (New Coinage of Goslar). The crosses indicate faith and the Christian religion, and the towers the temple just mentioned. This coin moreover explains III, VI, XIII, the Following ones, only if you observe the Lily in III as a symbol of sanctity and chastity of monastic life. Rarer is coin IV, whose inscription is this: MONETA COMITIS ADOLFI DE SCHavenburg (Coinage of Count Adolf of Schauenburg). His insignia, to which a star in the shield also pertains, Spener learnedly taught in his Heraldic Work, Book 1, ch. 86, pages 347, 348. ℣. Coin V of an Anonymous Emperor presents a figure. The towers at the sides intimate Majesty, Dominion and power, which in certain regions, VI. VII.
VIII.
IX. XI. XII.
XIII.
XIV. XV. XVI.
XVII.
XVIII.
XIX. XX. whose characters are towers, they had. We concede that the Emperor's seat or some other profane building, built by him or others, can be designated by these very ones, to Ioh. Andr. Schmid, Public Professor at Jena in his essay on the Coins of Cathedral churches, page 5. About Coin VI, let Coin II be consulted. Coin VII is the same as I, about which above. The Coin of an Uncertain Bishop, VIII, follows, where however it is to be noted that he holds in his left hand a globe with a cross, which some call the imperial apple, others perhaps more rightly the sign of the redeemed Christian World. In my native Saxo-Halle Library I saw a coin, in which a seated Bishop kept in his left hand a book, in his right a double globe adorned with a cross added on top, whose inscription was this: CONADUS EPISCOPS, that is Conradus the Bishop. Whether therefore such a doubled apple with a cross designates on sacred coins only faith and religion, is of deeper investigation. Coin IX is illustrated by II, in which a star added denotes the care of heavenly or divine things. In X we discern a seated Bishop, in whose right we observe the Crozier of office, in his left a book, the Symbol of the Christian Confession. The rest adorn the Coins. The Following one, XI, I have seen often in the Berlin especially Electoral Brandenburg and the Arnstadt Schwarzburg Cabinet, and it very clear; but nowhere else, nor have I read other than the following letters: HNCUS, IEX. PUNCU --- HEVIII PANOEA. From which nothing certain. The first ones I have thus interpreted: HeiNriCUS REX (Henry the King), the rest let others explain; my interpretation however was not made without cause, since such abbreviations and mutilated letters are sufficiently known to me. There was once a certain learned Man, who said this coin was minted by Lybussa Queen of Bohemia, who, riding in royal ornament, would be seen on the coin: he thought the first letters should be read HLIBUSIE, the rest words to be Bohemian. For my part I do not easily assent, since I am ignorant of the Bohemian language, nor can I sufficiently prove that bracteates were formed in the time of Lybussa; the impulsive cause of bracteates however, sufficiently ancient, which was the corruption of the Roman coinage, does not permit me utterly to deny this—on which matter more fully in my Introduction to the Bracteate Cabinet, pp. 17, 25. Added are seen buildings and towers, of which above. Coin XII denotes a Landgrave of Thuringia, on whose head an ornament adorned with pearls, behind we discern a castle. The Following one, XIII, Coin II illustrates. The Porch moreover and the railings indicate a sacred building erected in honor of some Saint. Coin XIV pertains to I, V, and VII. The Bishop in XV holds in his right a cross, in his left a Crozier. The Epigraph, to be read from left to right, is this: CUNRADUS EPICOPUS (Conrad the Bishop). The letters are very obscure. That Conrad the Bishop is elsewhere called of Erfurt; for I saw a coin of the same module and picture at Leipzig in the Library of the most ample senate, in which the following inscription: EPISCOPUS CUNRADUS IN ERFURDIA (Conrad the Bishop in Erfurt). Coin XVI presents an Abbess, in her right a book, in her left a palm, the insignia of Martyrdom and spiritual victory; where let us note that the palm is attributed not only to Saints but also to sacred things, since in the Monastery of Jerichow there is a monument of a certain Provost bearing a palm. Rare indeed are the coins of Abbesses, yet I myself have hitherto collected even twelve different ones of Agnes Abbess of Quedlinburg, and saw another in the Cabinet of Meibom, the most celebrated Professor of Helmstadt, which holds in her right a cross, in her left a book, with these letters added: ADELAHIDIS. DEI. GRA. ABBATISSA. EST., that is Adelheid by the grace of God Abbess of Essen. The bracteates of these, with other excellent ones, sacred and profane, never seen elsewhere, will shortly, God granting, come to light. Our Abbess, however, I think to be Agnes of Quedlinburg, whom in others we see with the same insignia and clear letters. The same let us note about Coin XVII, in which the same Abbess holds in her right a palm, in her left a book. Coin XVIII I judge the best. The inscription is this: OTTO. DEI. GRATIA. IM., that is Otto by the grace of God Emperor. A similar one my most loving Parent possesses in his Cabinet, in which a crowned Lion stands walking and this Epigraph: OTTO. DEI. GRATIA. ROMANOV. IM. (Otto by the grace of God Emperor of the Romans). The same also possesses Otto as a Horseman, to whom only the name OTTO is added, about which Introduction to Bracteates p. 36, num. 90, 91. Such a one too is at Magdeburg with the most Experienced Schäffer, where namely Otto as horseman holds in his right a scepter, in his left a shield, with the inscription added: OTTO. IMPERATOR. And from this it is to be determined that the Ottonic bracteates marked with a lion are of Otto IV, son of Henry the Lion, whose insignia, the Lion received from his Father, the Son as Emperor adorned with a crown, on which matter Meibom in his Notes to the golden Bull of the Emperor Andronicus, p. 211. ℣. The other older Ottonic ones however are to be referred either to Otto the Great himself. But what of Coin XIX? Certainly, if the errors of Frisius in delineating and explaining coins were not sufficiently known, we should at once say this one explained; for Frisius gave a bracteate, very similar to ours, engraved on copper in his Monetary Mirror p. 108, which was found at Heiligenstadt in the Year of Christ 1580 with others, and he says it is of Wilhelm son of Otto the Great, Archbishop of Mainz. But less rightly, since the Wheel was handed to the Mainz people, after a space of years intervening long after Wilhelm's death, by Willigisus, and was confirmed to the Mainz people by Henry II the Emperor in place of their ordinary Insignia. See Bruschius on the Bishops of Germany p. ℣. 7; Mersaeus, Catalogue of the Ecclesiastical Electors p. 193. ℣.; Spener, Heraldic Work Book I, ch. 64, p. 256, 257. ℣. And hence, other conjectures being dismissed, those judge not ill who attribute this coin to Henry II himself, namely because it was minted by the Mainz people in his honor and memory: for Henry II confirmed the Wheel to the Mainz people in place of their insignia, in memory of which benefit they without doubt minted coins both bracteate and solid, mentioned by Frisius at letter c. In XX is discerned SANCTUS STEPHANUS PRM. (Saint Stephen Protomartyr), that is Proto-Martyr. Of the same I noted several coins, Introduction p. 37, n. 98, 99, 100. And therefore to the Halberstadt people XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.
XXV.
XXVI.
XXVII.
is to be referred that one, to which the effigy of S. Stephen surrounded with a halo is added. Coin XXI is of Bernhard Duke of Saxony, whom the letters DU, that is DUx, and the banner adorned with the Ballenstedt and Ascanian insignia indicate. Elsewhere is added either the whole name or the letter B, on which matter Introduction p. 20, 29, 30. Coin XXII is the same as the preceding. The Following one, XXIII, seems sculpted in memory of Henry II. And certainly Emperors carried such staves, witness Carolus du Fresne in his Glossary at the word Baculus Regius, p. 428, 429. Of coin XXIV I have already treated in the explanation of coin XX. Coin XXV is illustrated by I. About the doubled imperial apple Schilter discourses thus in his Treatise on the Liberty of the German Church, Book III, ch. 9, §. 7, p. 405: In the ancient coins of the German Emperors and Kings a double globe or orb is to be referred to those times in which our Emperors extended the Empire of the West into the East, or at least for the sake of reserving their pretension, etc. In XXVI we see an Abbess unknown, who differs from the former XVI and XVII: for the present one keeps a cross in her right hand. Coin XXVII, finally, seems to me of Goslar, in which S. Simon and S. Judas appear, of whom above at coin II. The crowned head added perhaps designates Henry the Fowler, the founder of this city. And these are my hasty criteria, to which I wish to add, that from these various coins, found nevertheless in one place, it can be demonstrated that bracteates too were of common use: and certainly these coins were hidden on account of the tumults of war, for memorial ones are found by another method. On which matter Introduction to the Bracteate Cabinet p. 25, 26. For the rest, if I shall understand that my labor has pleased some, I shall reckon such labors, of whatever sort, to be well bestowed. Farewell and Favor me. Given at Arnstadt, the 12th Kalends of December, 1696.
[47] Thus far Olearius, by whose judgment I think one ought to stand: in the palm however given to the Abbesses my mind is not sufficiently at rest while he reckons that in our coins it is a symbol of virginity offered to God; for considering the time in which those coins seem to have been minted, the 12th century and following, I suspect that that palm is a testimony of a Jerusalem pilgrimage undertaken by vow, just as it was then undertaken by many of every condition, age, and sex: for many of such, enrolled there in that sacred warfare, returned to the sepulchre of the Lord with a palm, thereafter to be carried in the Procession of Palm Sunday around the image of Christ sitting on an ass, and to be placed on the sepulchre of the dying or hung up beside it on a heraldic shield. Such a rite of Procession flourishes even today in Belgium and Germany, and in various families palm branches are kept, which fathers or grandfathers brought from Jerusalem, fixed on a silver handle. The palm of the Jerusalem pilgrimage Nay, at Antwerp there flourishes the memory of Diderick van Paesschen, who, having twice happily completed a Jerusalem pilgrimage, sailed there a third time also, and returning with equal success, was in the year 1502 most solemnly received by the leading men of the city who went out to meet him and the Prefects of the Society of Crossbowmen (they call it a Guild); with which company, having arrived at the city, he was led by the rest of the Magistracy and the armed citizens into the principal Church of the Blessed Virgin, where there long hung from the vault two globes of enormous size, brought from Rhodes, which the Turks had then in vain assaulted, and sent as a gift to our city by the soldiers of Rhodes. Of the same Diderick there is among the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine, commonly called Falcontinas, a monument of blue stone, carved with three palms standing above a Jerusalem shield, with an Epitaph inscribed in the German language which is thus rendered in Latin: Here lies Diderick van Paesschen, deceased in the year 1516, on the 15th day of May, who, as Captain of the Guild, three times led the duchy (i.e. expedition) from Antwerp to Jerusalem, namely for his fellow citizens the pilgrims.
[48] These things having been thus set forth, nay already reprinted but to be reprinted again for a certain reason, I am admonished by the aforepraised Tenzel, that the palm, of which above, seems to be the insignia not only of pilgrimage but also of the Religion of Jerusalem: and a sign of the Order derived from it. for a Nun of this, the blessed Ubaldesca of Pisa (whose Life I gave on the 28th day of May, whence it is established that she never left her homeland), is seen to carry in her right hand a palm of this kind in her very ancient image taken from Bosius. Now Ubaldesca died in the Year of Christ 1207, in the 70th year of her age, and so had as contemporary the aforesaid Agnes, ordained Abbess in the year 1184: who therefore, although she had not set out for Jerusalem, could have joined herself to the consorors of the Order of Jerusalem of the Teutonic knights, instituted in the year 1190, to which order Christophorus Harsknoch attests that there were also religious Sisters from ancient codices, Dissertation 19 on Prussian affairs num. 14 and 15, in the chronicle of Prussia by Peter of Duisburg added, where in part 1, ch. 1, p. 15, among the first members of the order is mentioned Theodoricus Margrave of Meissen, nephew of Agnes the Abbess through her brother Otto the Rich: about whom whoever wishes to see more, let him consult the essay of Olearius himself promised above, now also published under the title "The Resurrection of Agnes," exhibiting ten of her coins in front.