Baring-Gould’s sources: Modem Roman Martyrology. York, Sarum, Hereford, and Durham Kalendars. German and Gallican Martyrologies. Not in the Martyrology of Jerome, nor in those of Florus and Hrabanus, or Ado, or Notker. Usuardus on Oct. 20, “ The Passion of the Blessed Virgins Martha, and Saula, and many others in the city of Cologne.1* Wandelbert on Oct 21. But for mention in Martyrologies see the text.] Drepanius Florus, priest of Lyons, who died in a.d. 860, wrote additions to a Martyrology, which had been compiled by the Ven. Bede (d. 735). In the Martyrology of Bede, augmented by Florus, there is no mention of S. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins. Hrabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz, drew up another Martyrology, on the basis of that attributed to Jerome, but which was really the old Roman Martyology, and that of Bede and Floras, adding local German saints. His Martyrology was compiled about a.d. 845. In it there is no mention of S. Ursula and her company. Ado of Vienne drew up another Martyrology at about the same date, a.d. 845. He also was ignorant of the existence of these martyrs. Notker Balbulus, monk of S. Gall, wrote another Martyrology in 859. In it also there is no mention of S. Ursula and her company. A S. Gall Martyrology of 804 is also without them. There exists also the ancient Cologne Kalendar of the 9th century in the Cathedral Library at Cologne, and it also contains no notice of these virgin martyrs.

But Wandelbert of Pram, in 847, gives them, though not “ Tunc numerosa simul Rheni per littora fulgent Christi Virgineis erecta tropsea maniplis Agrippinae urbi, quarum furor impius olim Millia mactavit ductricibus inclita sanctis.” 1 And Usuardus [a 9th-century monk of Paris who compiled a list of saints for each day] (d. 877), in his Martyrology, written at the instigation of Charles the Bald, gives on October 20, “ The passion of the holy virgins Martha and Saula, with many others, at Cologne.” Martha and Saula have been retained on October 20 in the Roman Martyrology.

An Essen Kalendar, composed before a.d. 891, gives, on Virgins."* There are two Corbei Martyrologies, one of a.d. 831, another of the date 900, and neither of these contains a notice of the Virgin Martyrs of Cologne, neither do those ‘ Bettberg has thought these lines an interpolation, but without good reason. < 3 This Kalendar contains, in the same handwriting, prayers for living and dead, and, amongst others, a prayer for Bishop Sunderbold of Mainz, as still living. He 8. URSULA.

Oct ax.] Ursula and Eleven Thousand. 537 called after Labbe and the abbey of Reichenau of the same period. An old Kalendar in the Diisseldorf Library of the 10th century copies Usuardus, merely transferring Martha and Darmstadt library, invokes five of these saints, in this order: Martha, Saula, Paula, Brittola, Ursula. Another litany in the same collection raises the number to eight, and gives a different succession: Brittola, Martha, Saula, Sambatia, Satumina, Gregoria, Pinnosa, Palladia. Another litany in the Diisseldorf Library extends the number to eleven: Ursula, Sencia, Gregoria, Pinnosa, Martha, Saula, Brittola, Satumina, Rabacia, Saturia, Palladia. Another gives eleven, but in different order: Martha, Saula, Brittola, Gregoria, Satumina, Sabatia, Pinnosa, Ursula, Sentia, Palladia, Saturia.

Crombach, and after him Bollandus, set to work to compile an Ursulan Kalendar of all the saints of that pious martyred crew who are venerated throughout the West. There are eighty-six days in the year provided with saints from that company. Of the names of those who attended S. Ursula as many as 1079 have been recovered by various means, as shall be detailed in the sequel; some Greek, some Irish, some German, some Latin, and some of no known origin. Some of the damsels, whose relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] now receive religious worship, delighted in such names as Hydropa, Imana, Languida, Gadiagia, Hebora, Naufragia, Rixa, Sutragia, Xpinna and Inez.

We come now to the earliest historical traces of the story. At the beginning of the 7th century, if we may trust the Life of S. Cunibert, written ip the 9th century, whilst the archbishop was saying mass in the “ basilica of the Holy Virgins,” he saw a white dove which rested on “ the tomb of a certain virgin,” whose body he thereupon exhumed. This body is supposed [Oct. ax.

to have been that of S. Ursula, and consequently a white dove is given her as a symbol, and January 28 was observed as the festival of the translation [the solemn moving of a saint’s relics to a new shrine] of her relics by S. Cunibert to Deutz. But the Life of S. Cunibert makes no mention of the name Ursula or any other. A very curious old sermon on the Festival of the Eleven Thousand Virgins exists, preached at Cologne, and attributed by the Bollandist De Buck to the period between 75I'^39‘ The preacher quotes Bede [English monk and historian (d. 735)] almost verbatim, so that it must be posterior to the death of Bede; and it speaks of the island of Batavia formed by the two branches of the Rhine; in 839, or thereabouts, after a great inundation, one of these branches was silted up and Batavia ceased to be an island.

The preacher does not mention Ursula at all, but makes Pinnosa or Vinnosa the leading virgin. He describes the martyrdom as having taken place under the Emperor Maximian [Diocletian’s co-emperor in the West, 286–305], and, of course, knows nothing about the Huns [nomadic invaders from Central Asia, led in the 5th century by Attila]. He bases his account on Cologne tradition,1 and admits that no written account of their martyrdom exists. Some thought, he says, that the eleven thousand virgins swarmed to Cologne after the Theban legionary soldiers — and the military do, no doubt, exercise an irresistible attraction upon girls — but the preacher prefers another theory, that they were returning from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and he says, if so, we can understand that such an open profession of their Christian faith should exasperate a tyrant like Maximian to massacre them all. He proceeds to argue that they were British damsels, because at that time, relying on Bede, he learned that the Christian faith was widely spread in the island of Britain. And he thinks that Vinnosa, “by our people called Pinnosa,” was the daughter of the king of the Britons. 1 “ Nec prsetereundum quod in ore nostratum tenaci memoria semper omnino diligendssime servatum."

oct. ss.] 5VS. Ursula and Eleven Thousand. 539 There exists a charter of Archbishop Herman of Cologne, of the date 922, which mentions the monastery “of the Eleven Thousand Virgins,” and it is also mentioned in charters of Archbishop Wichfrid in 927 and 941. The preacher above mentioned speaks of the rebuilding of the chinch, which had become ruined, by a certain Clematius, a man of consular dignity, coming from the East, moved thereto by the apparition of flames, as recorded on a stone in the church; but no means exist of fixing the date of this inscription, if authentic. We shall see the use made of the name Clematius presently, when we come to Abbot Gerlach and Elizabeth of Schonau.

The next notice is in the Chronicle of Sigebert of Gemblours, who died in a.d. 1112. At the date 453 occurs an account of the Virgins, beginning, “ The most famous of wars was that waged by the white-robed army of the eleven thousand holy virgins, under their leader, the virgin Ursula. She was the only daughter of Nothus, a most noble and rich prince of the Britons.” She was sought in marriage by the son of “ a certain most ferocious tyrant,” and her father wished her to marry him. But Ursula had dedicated herself to celibacy; and her father learning this, was thrown into great perplexity. But Ursula solved the difficulty. By divine inspiration she was moved to ask that ten virgins of beauty and proper age might be given to her, and that she and they might each have a thousand virgins under them, and that they should be allowed to cruise about for three years in the sanctity of their unsullied virginity. Ursula made this condition in the hope that the difficulty of fulfilling it would prove insurmountable, or that she might be able, should it be overcome, to persuade a vast host of maidens to devote themselves to the Almighty. The requisite number having been provided, Ursula sailed away with them on the blue seas in eleven elegantly [Oct. ax.

furnished galleys. For three years they went thus merrily sailing. At the end of that time, the wind drove them into the port of Tiel in Gaul [roughly modern France and Belgium], and thence wafted them up the Rhine to Cologne. They pursued their course to Basle, where they left the ships, and crossed the Alps on foot, descended into Italy, and visited the tombs of the apostles at Rome. In like manner they returned, but, falling in with the Huns at Cologne, they were every one martyred by the barbarians.

It will be seen that Sigebert transfers the martyrdom from a.d. 237, at which time the anonymous Cologne preacher would have it they suffered, to a.d. 453. But the original MS. of Sigebert does not contain this story. It is an addition to the text by a later hand, for the marks of stitches at the side of the page indicate that a strip of parchment was tacked on to the original page, containing some supplementary narrative. All subsequent codices, with one exception, however, give the passage, but one has a different version of it. The best MS. after the original (cod. 5, Pauli Virdunensis, No. 36), which belongs to the 12th century, has the passage. And as Sigebert had issued his first edition before 1 105, and added to it afterwards up to 1 1 1 1, the year before his death, it is possible that he may have himself made the insertion.

A somewhat later version of the story occurs in the Chronicle of Otto of Freising. He also attributes the martyrdom of the virgins to the Huns. A legend of the 12th century gives the story in fuller form. The princess is Ursula; a savage heathen prince asks for her hand for his son. Pinnosa, “ the noblest of the noble, was placed at the head of the company as Queen/’ as admiral of the fleet, apparently. The rest of the story resembles that in Sigebert. S. Ursula and her party are massacred by the Huns, Ursula being transfixed by an arrow. However, when the virgins were dead, then, and not a moment earlier, an army of angels came to the rescue and routed the Huns, who fled in all directions, and the people of Cologne issued from the city and buried the virgins, some in the earth and some in coffins. Some time after, there came a man from the East, named Clematius, who built a church to the honour of the martyrs. There was, however, among the company, a maiden named Cordula, who had been hidden in a boat whilst the massacre went on, next day she issued from her hiding place and offered herself for martyrdom.1 Long after, S. Cordula appeared to the blessed Helentrud, and informed her of the circumstances. According to this legend “ they suffered in the year 238.”

By means of this legend we are able to fix pretty well the date when the story was expanded as we find it in Sigebert It was probably the work of the nun Helentrud of Herse. She had her visions about 1131, for then Frederick, Archbishop of Cologne, dedicated an altar to S. Cordula, in the porch of the church of S. Ursula. There is no mention of her name earlier.

Geoffrey of Monmouth (d. 1154) gives another form of the legend, as it reached his ears, at the same time weaving it in with historical incidents after his fashion, to give it some sort of basis.

He relates that the Emperor Maximian, having depopulated Northern Gaul, sent to Britain for colonies wherewith to re-people the waste country. Thus out of Armorica [Brittany in north-west France] he made a second Britain, which he put under the control of Conan Meriadoc. He then turned his arms eastward, and, having established himself at Trfeves, commenced hostilities against the emperors Gratian and Valentinian, who disputed with him the imperial purple. In the meantime Conan was defending Brittany against the incursions 1 Oct. as.

[Oct. ax. of the neighbouring Gauls, but, finding that his troops were restless and miserable without wives, he sent to Britain for a cargo of damsels, who might become the spouses of his soldiers, and raise up another generation of fighting men to continue the war against the Gauls. At this time there reigned in Cornwall a king, Dinothus by name, who had succeeded his brother Caradoc on the throne. He was blessed with a daughter of singular beauty, named Ursula, whose hand Conan desired to obtain. Dinothus, having received a message from the prince of Armorica stating his difficulties, at once collected a body of eleven thousand girls of noble rank and sixty thousand of low birth, and shipped them on the Thames for the Armorican colony of excited and expectant husbands.

No sooner, however, had the fleet left the mouth of the Thames than it was scattered by the winds, and, some of the vessels having been driven ashore on barbarous islands, the damsels were either killed or enslaved. Some became the prey of the execrable army of Guanius and Melga, kings of the Huns and Piets, who, falling upon the band of luckless virgins, massacred them without compunction. It is so well known that Geoffrey of Monmouth is not to be relied upon for any single statement in his so-called “ History,” that it is not worth while showing the anachronisms and absurdities which discredit this tale. His Conan Meriadoc is Cynan Meiriadog, grandson of Caradog (a.d. 380), whose sister Elen Wledig, the Emperor Maximus— called in the Welsh Triads, Macsen Wledig— is said to have married. It is further said that Cynan led over an army into Gaul to support the claims of Maximus, whose revolt in Britain is fixed as having occurred in 383. Geoffrey has confounded Maximus with Maximian, and has made Piets as well as Huns the murderers of the damsels, which is an absurdity.

oct. ax.].SVy. Ursula and Eleven Thousand ’ 543 The story occurs also in the Saga of Olaf Tryggvasonar, by the monk Oddr, written in the 12th century. According to this authority, there lived in the days of Earl Hako (i>. between 995-1000), a king in Ireland, who had a most accomplished and beautiful daughter named Sunnifa, who was endowed with wealth, beauty, and Christian piety. A northern viking, hearing of her charms, became enamoured, and harried the coasts of Ireland, setting all in flames, because the king hesitated to give him the hand of his daughter. The damsel, to save her native island from devastation by the impatient suitor, expressed her determination to leave Ireland. Her brother Alban and a multitude of virgins joined her, and all sailed away east, trusting in God. They came ashore on the island of Selja, off the coast of Norway, and would there have been massacred by Earl Hako, had not the rocks opened, and all the maidens having retired within, they closed on them again, and they came forth no more alive. In 1170, the relics of Sunnifa and her virgin train were translated from Selja to Bergen by the bishop, Paul. Now it must be remembered, that there is no mention whatever of the massacre by any historian who was likely to know about the circumstances. Bede is absolutely silent on the subject. So are the Welsh Triads, so is also Gregory of Tours [bishop and historian of the Franks (d. 594)], who gives an account of the ravages of the Huns, so likewise is Fredegar of Rheims.

The oldest authority for the martyrdom, the anonymous preacher, says not a word about the Huns, but attributes the martyrdom to the Roman Emperor Maxentius [rival emperor at Rome 306–312, defeated by Constantine], and shows that at his date little was known of the martyrs, but that there were various traditions about them. Baronius [Cardinal Baronius (d. 1607), church historian who edited the Roman Martyrology] adopted, however, the date 451 as that of the martyrdom, when Attila was returning from the defeat at Ch&lons. This date, it must be distinctly understood, is purely arbitrary.

It is dear also that till the nth century the name of Ursula was unknown, or at all events, for some reason which will perhaps appear in the sequel, kept in the background, the only names which rise to the surface being Vinnosa or Pinnosa, Martha and Saula.

Let us turn now to another part of the subject. During the latter part of the Middle Ages there grew up a curious custom of founding confraternities or guilds in Germany, and especially along the Rhine and in Swabia, for men and women, called “The Skiffs of S. Ursula.” These skiffs existed under the direction of monks, generally Carthusians [a strict order of hermit-monks founded by St. Bruno in 1084], who served as captain, mate, and pilot of the several boats. The form of admission to the skiff was very simple. The candidate had to recite the Lord’s Prayer and the Angelic Salutation thrice before a crucifix, kneeling, with outstretched arms; and every Friday he had to say the Lord’s Prayer sitting, standing, or walking, as he liked, and he was to undertake to recite certain psalms, or prayers, or assist at so many masses, to serve to stock the boat’s hold with good works.1 A Strassburg skiff was loaded in 4,025 penitential psalms, 180,000 prayers on the Passion, 76.000 corporal chastisements, 11,000 Paternosters and 6,530 Ave Marias to the honour of S. Ursula, together with 35.000 vigils of nine lessons for the dead. Upon this abundant provision the passengers to eternity in the boat were at liberty to draw.* The boat was provided with a sail — the veil of S. Ursula, which was composed of eleven thousand Our Fathers, one recited to the honour of each maiden of the saintly crew. Those who sailed in the boat of S. Ursula were provided with special indulgences granted by the popes. These confraternities had their symbol — a > “ Ad increxnentum navicula thesauri."

boat, which was borne about in procession through the streets. These societies probably do not now exist, but I have myself seen on the Rhine ships on wheels gaily decked with flags drawn by horses through the streets, at Carnival time.

Tacitus says that in his time, “ a part of the Suevi sacrificed to Isis. Whence the cause of the foreign rite I have not ascertained, except that the symbol itself, in shape of a Liburnian ship, indicates that the religion was brought from abroad.” He speaks of the goddess as Isis, because of the ship which was carried about in her honour. Now in Rome, the 5th March (iii. non. Mart.) was called in the Kalendarium Rusticum the day of the Isidis navigium. This is referred to by Apuleius, in his “ Metamorphoses.” The goddess appeared to the poor ass, and said, “ The morrow that from the present night will have its birth is a day that eternal religion hath appointed as a holy festival; at a period when, the tempests of winter having subsided, the waves of the stormy sea abated, and the surface of the ocean become navigable, my priests dedicate to me a new ship, laden with the first-fruits of spring, at the opening of the navigation.”1 The myth of Isis and her wanderings is too well known to be related. Now it is certain that in parts of Germany the custom of carrying about a ship existed through the middle ages, and when not associated with the confraternities of S. Ursula, was denounced by the Church as idolatrous. Grimm mentions a very curious passage in the Chronicle of Rudolf, wherein it is related that, in 1 133, a ship was secretly constructed in a forest at Inda (Comelimiinster in Juliers), and was placed on wheels, and rolled by the weavers to Sachen, then to Maestricht, and elsewhere, amidst dances, and music, and rites, which the pious chronicler refrains from describing. That it was regarded with abhorrence by the 1 “ Golden Ass/' lib. xi.

clergy is evident from the epithets employed in describing it At Ulm, in Swabia, in 1530, the people were forbidden carrying about ploughs and ships on Shrove Tuesday. A like prohibition was issued at Tubingen on the 5th March, 1504. In Brussels is celebrated, I believe, to this day, a festival called the Ommegang, in which a ship is drawn through the town by horses, with an image of the B. Viigin upon it; so also at Boulogne.

The goddess called Isis by Tacitus was variously named by the German and Scandinavian peoples. By the Norsemen she was styled Freya; by the Teutons, Holle, Holda, Harka, Bertha; and in Swabia and Thuringia, Urschel or Horsel. Horsel seems to have been the Thuringian name for her. She was said to live in the Horselberg, surrounded by her thousand maidens, and to receive the souls of dead maidens. Her father was called by the Scandinavians, Niordr, and his place of abode, Noatun. It is curious that S. Ursula’s father should have so similar a name, though disguised in the Latin form of Nothus. The old Gothic form of Niordr was Niorthus, the old High Dutch, Nirdu.

This Teutonic and Scandinavian goddess sailed about the blue heavenly seas in her silver ship, seeking her husband. For long the name of Pinnosa, or Vinnosa, was given at Cologne to the leader of the saintly band. It is curious to find that the Scandinavian Freya was also called the Vana, or the goddess of the Vans.

The husband of Freya was called Od. Gold, among the Norsemen, was regarded as the tears of Freya, which she shed over the world in her wanderings in search of him.

How the story grew that Horsel sailed out of Britain is also clear. It arose from a misconception between “ Engdland v and “ England.” The confusion exists in children’s nursery rhymes in Germany to this day. There are many oct. ax.] ££, Ursula and Eleven Thousand. 547 such rhymes beginning, “ There came a ship a sailing from Engelland,” in which sit women; in a Frankfort rhyme one is Brigidian, the name of one of the Ursuline party; at Berlin there are two, Biebe and Biebele; about twelve Babylas occur in the party of S. Ursula.

But the most remarkable names are those of Martha and Saula. These are, there seems a probability, “ Mirten 1 und Seelen,” spirits and souls, which, according to the German belief, accompanied the Goddess Horsel, or Holda, everywhere.

The goddess Horsel was, in fact, the moon-deity, gliding in her silver skiff over the blue sea of the sky, accompanied by her train of stars.

Now it is quite possible that there may have been virgin martyrs at Cologne at some time or other; it is very possible that the Huns may have exercised great barbarities there, and that the tradition of some of their atrocities may have lingered on; though, as we have seen from the Cologne sermon of the 9th century, they were not accredited with the massacre of these virgins. Indeed, the fact that a church existed at Cologne dedicated to virgin martyrs, at a very early date, seems to indicate that there possibly had occurred some martyrdom of maidens there. But this is absolutely all that can be said in favour of these saints; and it is certain that popular tradition has enveloped them with attributes of old Teutonic mythological personages, and has even invested them with their names.

We pass now to the history of the invention of their relics. As has been already related, S. Cunibert is said to have discovered and translated the bones of S. Ursula, in the 7th century; her name, however, is not given in the 9th century Life of the Archbishop, she is only “a certain virgin.” These relics were transferred across the river, to the venerable abbey 1 The Marat* of Sanskrit mythology.

[Oct ax. of Deutz. Some portions of this body were given in 1170 to S. Martin [St. Martin of Tours (d. 397), soldier turned bishop]’s, Toumai. In 1105, Henry, the rebellious son of Henry IV., was in arms against his father, and the emperor fled to Cologne, where, finding the walls ruinous, he urged the citizens to repair or rebuild them. He was shortly after seized and imprisoned by his son, but he escaped, returned to Cologne, and continued the re-walling of the city. In July, 1106, his son surrounded Cologne with his troops, but the city held out till the death of Henry IV. at Lidge, in August, when the siege came to an end.

Whilst workmen were engaged in turning up new soil near the church of S. Cunibert, they came on a considerable number of bones. Shortly after, one or two of them asserted that they had seen two beautiful and richly dressed women, who informed them that they were digging into the restingplace of the martyred virgins, and that they must not be surprised if shortly the entire body of one of them were discovered. And so it was. Next day the corpse of a young woman, who looked as if she had been recently murdered, was unearthed. The blood was not even dry, and stained the hands of those who lifted her out of her grave.1 Public suspicion of foul play was arrested by the assurance given by the workmen that this was the body of a saint miraculously preserved.

The discovery, however, caused a lawsuit between the canons of S. Cunibert and the nuns of S. Ursula. The latter claimed the bones as belonging to their patrons, the former as having been found on their ground.

In 1 1 13 the Archbishop of Cologne entertained some doubt about the genuineness of at least one of these relics, ' “Ad hue recenti rube bat sanguine." “ Cum presbyter manus suas abluent, de manibus ejus defluebat quasi unda sanguinis." — The contemporary record of tJu discoveryby a monk of Waulsort.

oct. and so took the head of S. Faith, and held it in the fire. Crombach says that a piteous voice issued from the skull, “ Why do you torment me so ? ” and the archbishop was punished for his doubts by dying within two months. Unfortunately for the truth of the story, Frederick I. occupied the archiepiscopal throne till 1131.

In 1123 S. Norbert came to Cologne to search for relics, and after having fasted and prayed, he saw a vision of a damsel, who informed him that if he dug where the workmen had previously discovered so many saintly bones, he would assuredly discover some more. Next day he dug there, procured as many bones as he wanted, and carried them off with him to Premontrd But the great “invention ” of all took place in 1155. It is perhaps one of the most painful histories of fraud which has ever been recorded. So preposterous is it, that the Jesuit father, De Buck, waxes wrath and indignant over it, and instances other frauds of like nature, though on a less scale, to show that unfortunately such acts were not unknown.

The walls built by Henry IV. had no doubt traversed an old burial-ground belonging to the church of S. Cunibert. In 1155, Gerlach was abbot of Deutz, and he set to work on a large scale to dig up all the dead in this old burialground, and to manufacture tombstones for them recording their names, their titles, and the circumstances of their martyrdom.

For eight years the diggings went on under Gerlach, and when he died, his successor, the abbot Hartbern, continued the fraud for a year or more. Gerlach produced some one hundred and ninety tombstones, and Hartbern twenty three more.

De Buck tries to exculpate the abbot by supposing that the diggers composed the epitaphs and engraved them. But vol. xil 13 [Oct. ax.

unfortunately this theory will not stand. There is evidence that the whole affair was a conspiracy, in which more than Gerlach were involved, for the sake of gaining credit for Cologne and the abbey of Deutz as an inexhaustible mine of relics.

The following are specimens of some of the inscriptions: — “ S. Cyriacus, Pope of Rome, who with joy received the sacred virgins, and with them returning received martyrdom, also S. Alina V.”1 “ Here lies S. Marinus sixth (bishop) of Milan, who came from Rome along with the sacred virgins, also S. Verasia V.”* “ S. Forlan, Bishop of Lucca, coming sent from the apostolic throne to this place, was killed, being slain with the sword, and buried along with these sacred virgins.”3 “ Pantulus Bishop of Basle, having received the sacred virgins with joy, led them to Rome, and having returned with them, arrived at Cologne, and there received^ with them martyrdom, also S. Grata the Younger.”4 Several bishops along with the pope have thus a virgin at their side in their stone coffins. “ Here lies buried in this cave the holy martyr Quirillus, a priest, who lived six days after his martyrdom.”6 “ Saint Charcharberus, martyr, and a Moor of Ethiopia.”6 “ S. Nothus, martyr and king of the Scots, and his wife Sara, killed in the same place.”7 “S. Papunius, M. and King of Ireland, brother of S. Nothus, who came to visit the; “ S. Cyriacus papa Romanus, qui cum gaudio suscepit sacras virgines, et cum iisdem re versus, martyrium suscepit, et S. Alina V." 9 “ Hie jacet S. Marinus Mediolanensis sextus, qui veniebat de Roma cum sacris virginibus, et S. Verasia V."

3 “ S. Forlanus Lucensis episcopus veniens ab apostolica sede missus, hoc in loco fuit oedsus, et cum istis sacris virginibus est sepultus, et fexro peremptus." 4 “ Pantulus Basileensis episcopus virgines sacras cum gaudio susceptas Romam perduxit, unde reversus, Coloniam pervenit, ibique cum eis martyrium suscepit, et S. Grata junior.** tyrium suum.”

6 “ S. Charcharberus, martyr, et maurus de Ethiopia.” 1 “ S. Nothus, martyr et rex Scottorum, et uxor ejus Sara, occisi sunt in eodem loco. oct. ax.].SVy. Ursula and Eleven Thousand. 551 bodies of the sacred virgins.”1 “ S. Picmenius, M. and King of England, from whose land came eleven thousand, and Queen Alspint and his daughter Eria, a virgin.”9 S. Clematius, who had buried all the virgins and their lay arid clerical followers, was honoured with two tombstones and two distinct bodies. On one tombstone was inscribed, “ Clematius found these slain bodies with other virgins, and buried them in peace;” the other bore the inscription, “ Here lies buried S. Clematius, who with his own hands buried the sacred virgins.”

There was no such pope as S. Cyriacus, no bishop of Milan named Marinus, no Pantulus of Basle. As for Forlan of Lucca, the composer of the epitaph mistook the Irish Frigidian of Lucca for the Irish Forlan, brother of S. Fursey, killed by robbers in Brabant in 655. And what are we to say to King Picmenius, “rex de Anglia,” in 451, when the first Jute colony in Britain formed the kingdom of Kent in 449, and the first Angle kingdom was founded in 547, and the English were not christianized till the 7th century ? Abbot Gerlach wrote out a book of the inscriptions, which was preserved in the abbey of Deutz; and thence Crombach in his “ S. Ursula vindicata ” drew his list. In the abbey of Schonau, in Nassau, lived at the time a young nun, named Elizabeth, then aged twenty-four, who was hysterical, visionary, and had the utmost confidence in herself.3 Gerlach thought it necessary that his tombstones and relics should receive some explanation, so he sent two skeletons, exhumed from the great quarry of relics, to Schonau, 1 “ S. Papunius, martyr et rex Hiberniensis, frater sancti Noti qui venit visitare corpora sanctarum virginum.”

Alspint et filia ejus Eria vixgo. for her lack of modesty. See her Life on June x8. [Oct- si. and the inscriptions on the monuments as they were concocted and cut and discovered, and asked Elizabeth by means of visions to afford him details concerning the life and martyrdom of those bodies which were discovered. Elizabeth was, there can be little doubt, no party voluntarily to the fraud; she was a visionary, who saw what she wanted, or what was desired of her.

But she was placed in the hands of her brother Egbert, monk of S. Cassius at Bonn, afterwards abbot of St. Florinus at Schonau, belonging to the same order as Gerlach, and therefore also interested in the discovery which brought such credit to it. Elizabeth knew nothing of Latin, and Egbert wrote down her visions in Latin; it was therefore quite possible for him to insert or omit what he thought proper. At the beginning of her “ Revelations” Elizabeth admits that she might have been silent had not men of good judgment urged her to publish her revelations concerning these Cologne virgins to an unbelieving world.1 She was made a reluctant vehicle for advancing a cause which certain unscrupulous men had at heart. It is quite clear from what Gerlach wrote to her that there were many who ridiculed his discoveries, and had a suspicion that there was knavery at work, and he hoped that Elizabeth's explanation would do something towards removing these doubts. In fact it had been asked how it was that there was a dead pope found at Cologne whose name was not to be read in any lists of popes, and how it was that Clematius had two tombstones and two bodies. The Bollandist father entitles her Revelations “ Imaginations,” and judiciously so. She unfolded a marvellous tale. According to her, the damsels wafted up the Rhine had gone to Basle, where the bishop Pantulus received them, and, deserting his see, conducted them over the Alps 1 “ Dc his enim me nlere non permittunt quidam bonse opinionis vizi, qui ad haec inrestiganda diutina postulatione me multum resist entem compuleninL" to Rome. There Cyriacus, the pope, was so charmed with their beauty or piety, that he hastily resigned his tiara, and with a troop of bishops, cardinals, priests and monks, followed them as far as Cologne, where they, as well as the damsels, won the martyrs’ crown at the hands of the Huns. The explanation of the two tombstones of Clematius was very simple: there were two of the same name — one had buried the martyrs, the other built the church in their honour. The reason why Cyriacus occurred in no lists of the popes was because the Roman cardinals, not approving of his conduct in vacating the chair of S. Peter to run after eleven thousand virgins, had scored his name from their lists. Elizabeth died in 1165.1 During the excavations a number of bones of little children were found, even of babes at the breast, and some which, there could be no doubt, were the bones of unborn infants. Here was a discovery somewhat compromising to the memory of the eleven thousand virgins, not to mention the pope, cardinals, and bishops who followed them. What was to be done? Elizabeth was no longer available, she was either dying or dead. Most opportunely an ecclesiastic was produced, who also had visions and could explain away the scandal. Two books of his visions exist — one written, at least in its completed form, in 1183, the second in 1187. They have been attributed to an Englishman, eager to 1 Another difficulty suggested was. How came these martyrs by their tombstones To explain this, S. Elizabeth had a vision, and was informed that James, Archbishop of Antioch, a Briton by birth, had gone to Rome to visit Cyriacus the Pope, but had learned on his arrival that his Holiness had been last seen clambering the Alps in the train of eleven thousand virgins of entrancing beauty. The Eastern patriarch [the title of the bishops of the great ancient sees: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem] at once followed the successor of S. Peter, and reached Cologne on the morrow of the massacre. He thereupon cut the names and titles of many of the deceased on stone — how he ascertained them we are not told — but before he had accomplished his task the Huns discovered him engaged on his pious work and despatched him. But the tombstone of James was discovered. Who had engraved that ? By revelation Elizabeth learned that when he was assailed by the Huns, he implored them to cut his name and titles on a tombstone over him: they consented — martyred him, and then engraved his epitaph.

[Oct ax. retrieve the fair fame of his countrywomen, Richard of Whitchurch, a Premonstratine canon at Amsbeig. But the Bollandist De Buck attributes it, with some show of reason, to the Blessed Hermann Joseph, whose life has been given (April 7). These Revelations, “ seu Imaginations, ” outdo far in grotesqueness and absurdity those of Elizabeth. At the end of the first book is a special revelation to account for the bones of the babies. According to him, S. Ursula was accompanied by some very little girls, and also by some married women and their husbands. Some of the girls were seven years old, some below five, one was only a year old, some only half a year old, and some only two months. Hermann Joseph says: “Since among the relics and bodies of the sacred virgins have been found some such small bones and bodies, that they can have been only three months from the day of their conception, this has staggered some people not a little.” He accordingly broached the delicate question to S. Ursula herself when she visited him, and she was able to solve the difficulty with the greatest ease. She explained to him that it was quite true that there were unborn babes among the martyrs, who, dying before they came to the birth, were baptized in their own blood. When Hermann stood puzzling his head over the matter, he was suddenly illumined, and told, “ Things did not go on in the company as you suspect,”1 and it was explained to him that there were in the multitude two hundred married women and two hundred husbands, and that the eleven thousand were models of propriety.

Of ail the nonsense ever written by man, the Revelations of the Blessed Hermann Joseph are supreme. After having assured us that he wrote by divine inspiration, and with the 1 “ Dum itaque die quadam harum notarius stans super his mente revoiveret, ecce coelitus cogitatione ejus respondetur: Quia non est ita, ut tu putas; nam integer umerus undedm millium ibi erat virginum. special assistance of the Blessed Virgin, Hermann Joseph proceeds to give pedigrees and lists and relationships of the virgins and bishops and kings. The father of S. Ursula had three sisters and three brothers. The sisters were called Josippa, Thelindris, and Eulalia; and the brothers, Helvidius, Ludwig, and Herwig. Ludwig had a wife called Hermgard, and their daughters were S. Pinnosa and S. Evodia. The wife of Herwig was Hedwig, and they had three daughters, S. Sapientia, S. Serena, and S. Eulalia the younger. Helvidius had a wife named Malcha, and by her a son, who bore his name. Helvidius junior, by his wife Arena, had two daughters in the company of S. Ursula, Spes, and Euphrosyne. And so on with the aunts of Ursula.

Five Anglican bishops followed S. Ursula on her travels — Bishop Michael Wilson,1 his brother James Wilson, S. Columbanus [Irish monk (d. 615) who founded monasteries in France and Italy], son of the Duchess Alexandria, sister of the mother of S. Ursula. Bishop Iwan, the great-uncle of Ursula, and S. Eleutherius. The fifth bishop was S. Lothair, “ a very generous man.” Ursula was engaged to be married to Prince Holofemes, whom Elizabeth of Schonau called Aetherius.

In the company was also King Oliver, engaged to be married to the virgin Oliva, daughter of King Cleopater, the great-uncle of S. Ursula. Also King Crophorus and his wife Cleopatra. Also King Lucius and King Clovis, with his wife Blandina.

Both Elizabeth and Hermann are constrained to offer some explanation of the fact that Pope Cyriacus occurs in no known list of the popes. They both say that the priests and cardinals of Rome were so offended at him for throwing up the papacy that he might run after the damsels that they scored his name out of the lists. But when we look at the lists of cardinals who followed his example we have reason to wonder that they were not more indulgent, for the eleven thousand proved an attraction to them quite as strong as to the successor of S. Peter, and among the martyrs at Cologne at least two occur, Peter Vincentius and Pontius; whilst the pope drew after him two of his deacons, three subdeacons, and even the grave archdeacon of Rome.

Among the kings who attended the virgins and suffered were King Canute and King Pepin. But surely this is enough of such rubbish. Of the vast number of relics of the virgin martyrs that remain and are exhibited, not only in the church of S. Ursula at Cologne, but throughout Europe, most are of Gerlach’s finding, and take their names either from the tombstones of his manufacture, or the dreams of Elizabeth or Hermann Joseph.

Many of the skulls of the virgin martyrs are transfixed with arrows. Gerlach, who was capable of composing their epitaphs, was capable of giving them the appearance of having been shot to death.

S. Ursula is represented in art with an arrow in her hand and a dove at her side, or covering with her mantle the crowd of her followers.1