_How, and by whom the cloister was founded and built, in which the two
blessed maidens, Mechthild and Gertrude, served God._
When men had counted one thousand two hundred and nineteen years since
the birth of Christ our dear Lord and Saviour, it came to pass, by the
special grace of God, that the mighty and noble Count Burkhardt of
Mansfeldt built a convent of nuns near to the castle of Mansfeldt. This
convent was dedicated by Count Burkhardt to Mary the Blessed Virgin; and
therein did he place pious nuns, taken from the convent of S. James,
called Burckarsshoff, of the Cistercian order, near Halberstatt.
The wife of the above-mentioned Count Burkhardt was a Countess of
Schwarzbruck, Elisabeth by name. She was the mother of two daughters--one
named Gertrude, the other Sophia. Gertrude married a young Count of
Mansfeldt, the cousin of Count Burkhardt, and Sophia married a Burggraf
of Querfurdt.
Now Count Burkhardt, in the same year that he finished the building and
furnishing of the aforesaid convent, departed joyfully from this present
life; and after his departure the noble countess, Frau Elisabeth, his
widow, found that the place chosen near the castle of Mansfeldt was not
suitable for a spiritual life, and therefore, in the fifth year after the
death of her lord, by the advice of persons of good understanding, she
removed and rebuilt the convent at a place called Rodardsdorff. And when
it had remained there twenty-four years it was again removed to Helpede
or Hellfde, as the following history relates.
Now when the above-named countess, Frau Elisabeth, had removed the
convent to Rodardsdorff, she betook herself thither, and there did she
serve God, and ended her life well and blissfully.
The first abbess of this convent was Frau Kunigunde of Halberstatt, and a
truly God-fearing and devout woman. And when she had lived seventeen
years at Rodardsdorff, she there died a blessed death in the year 1251.
And on the day following her departure there was chosen by the direction
of the Holy Ghost, as the above-named abbess, Frau Kunigunde, had
predicted, to be abbess in her room, the sister Gertrude, born of the
noble family of Hackeborn, and a sister by birth of the blessed and
marvellously endowed Mechthild, of whom the Book of spiritual graces
gives the history.
This Abbess Gertrude was chosen unanimously, as being of a wholly
spiritual and devout manner of life. She was nineteen years old at the
time of her election, and she filled her office for forty years and
eleven days; and during her time the nuns of the cloister lived holy and
God-fearing lives, and God bestowed upon them marvellous gifts. And when
she had lived fifty-nine years, she was taken away from this world,
joyfully and piously, and entered into the gladness and the glory of the
everlasting kingdom in the year of our Lord 1291.
And when the cloister had now been standing twenty-four years at
Rodardsdorff, and she had been abbess at that place seven years, then for
the third time was the site of the convent changed, and it was renewed
and rebuilt as follows:--
It was seen and observed by Count Hermann of Mansfeldt, a son of Frau
Gertrude, the elder daughter, and Burggraf Burkhardt of Querfurdt, a son
of Frau Sophia, the younger daughter of the mighty Count Burkhardt of
Mansfeldt, the founder of the convent, that at Rodardsdorff there was a
great want of water, so that it could not have been well for the convent
longer to remain there. Therefore these two counts made an exchange of
the convent with the two barons, the Lord Albert and the Lord Ludolf of
Hackeborn, for the manor and village of Hellfde, adding on their part
other estates. And at Hellfde was the cloister for the third time
rebuilt.
The nuns of the convent of Rodardsdorff were removed to the convent of
Hellfde in the year 1258, on the Sunday of the Holy Trinity. To this
inauguration of the convent did the aforesaid two Counts of Mansfeldt and
Querfurdt invite many lords and gentlemen, such as Rupert, the archbishop
of Magdeburg, Bishop Volradt, of Halberstatt, also many other lords and
prelates, spiritual and temporal.
Count Hermann of Mansfeldt had no male issue, but only three daughters.
Two of these, Sophia and Elisabeth, did he place in the convent of
Hellfde, where they lived godly lives. One of them became an able writer,
who wrote many good and useful books for the convent, and afterwards
became the abbess thereof. The other was for a long time prioress, and
was a skilful painter, who laboured industriously at the adorning of the
books and of other things which pertained to the service of God. The
third daughter was given in marriage by Count Hermann of Mansfeldt to a
Baron von Rabbinswalt.
And because the aforesaid Count Hermann had no male heirs, he sold the
castle and the county of Mansfeldt to the Burggraf Burkhardt of
Querfurdt. And thus did Mansfeldt and the land come into the family of
Querfurdt, as also other estates of Count Hermann in the land of
Thuringia.
In the cloister of Hellfde there lived many most excellent persons, the
children of counts and lords, and of nobles and common people. And for
near ninety years the community lived after the manner of cloistered
nuns, a life as it were angelic. And the Lord Jesus was so intimately
known to the persons of this community that they communed with Him, as
with their most dearly beloved Lord and Bridegroom, as one good friend
would speak with another. And the angels of heaven had a special joy and
gladness in beholding this blessed company, of which much might be
written, but which for brevity's sake we will not write, as much is told
of these things in the Book of spiritual graces.
At last, in the year 1342, after the birth of Christ our dear Lord, there
arose a great dispute between the Duke of Brunswick and the Count of
Mansfeldt, whose name was Burkhardt. And this dispute arose because a
Duke of Brunswick, Albert by name, was chosen by some to be Bishop of
Halberstatt, and by others there was chosen the son of Count Burkhardt of
Mansfeldt, whose name was also Albert. And the choice of this latter was
confirmed by the Pope.
Therefore there arose war and fighting, so that the Dukes of Brunswick
invaded the land of the Count of Mansfeldt with rage and violence, and
spoiled and wasted and burned all before them. And by means of this
visitation of God was the convent burned to the ground, and utterly
ruined and destroyed. And as the chronicles relate, it was Duke Albert of
Brunswick (the Bishop-elect) and a lord of Weringenrod, who with their
own hands set fire to the convent. What it was that moved them to do
this, is known to Him who knoweth all things.
There were also several horsemen, and others with cross-bows and other
murderous weapons, who ran to seize the abbess and some of her godly
spiritual children, intending to do them grievous harm. Yet, as the
enemies themselves bore witness, when they were a stone's throw from
these maidens they lost, as it were, their strength and force, and could
proceed no further. And although it was against the will and desire of
Duke Henry of Brunswick (who was also Bishop of Heldesheim) and of Duke
Otto of Brunswick, and of others who were with Duke Albert, and though
these endeavoured with all possible good faith to prevent it, the
cloister was nevertheless pillaged and burnt.
After this, in the year 1346, the convent was for the fourth time again
rebuilt, in the outer part of the town of Eisleben. (From the German
edition of the _Mechthilden Buch_ 1503.)
Gertrude Von Hackeborn.
It was during the forty years in which the convent was under the able
direction of the Abbess Gertrude von Hackeborn, that it became
distinguished for the high attainments of its inmates. Gertrude was of
the family of the Barons of Hackeborne, whose castle and manor was
situated a little to the east of the town of Eisleben. At the age of
nineteen she was already marked out, by her spiritual and mental
endowments, as a capable directress of the nuns placed beneath her care.
It was she who persuaded her brothers Albert and Ludolf to give the manor
of Hellfde for the new site of the convent, which had been for
twenty-four years at Rodardsdorff. Many gifts were afterwards given to
the convent by the Barons of Hackeborn, in consideration of the
distinguished place held there by their two sisters, Gertrude and
Matilda.
For a long time Gertrude was supposed to be the author of the book known
as the _Gertruden Buch_, out of which Ter Steegen made the extracts which
he published in his "Lives of Holy Souls," assigning them to the Abbess
Gertrude von Hackeborn. It seems now, however, clearly ascertained that
the book so long attributed to the abbess was the work of a nun of the
convent, also named Gertrude, to whom reference will be made later on. In
this book, as also in the book called the _Mechthilden Buch_, which was
dictated chiefly by Matilda of Hackeborn, and completed by the writers
(also nuns of the convent) after her death, much is related of the Abbess
Gertrude. She is described as a woman of remarkable character, uniting
love, gentleness, and piety with practical wisdom, good sense, and mental
culture. The chief feature which appears to have impressed the
sisterhood, was "the sweetness of the love which dwelt in her innermost
heart."
Up to the last her love was active and practical. When in her latter days
she was completely crippled, and in constant suffering, she insisted upon
being carried to the sisters who were ill in bed, that she might speak to
them a word of comfort. When at last her speech failed her, her beaming
eyes, her loving countenance, and the gentle movement of her hand assured
the sisters who stood around her that her affection for them remained
untouched by her bodily infirmities. The sisters said it was not a
melancholy, but a joyful, duty to watch by her bed of weakness and
suffering.
But it was never the case during her long superintendence of the convent
that this remarkable power of loving interfered with the strictest
discipline, or with the wise and careful ordering of the convent life.
She had no easy task when many daughters of the highest families of the
North German nobles were committed to her care. They were accustomed to
rule rather than to obey, and to live idle lives of pleasure and
self-indulgence. But under the loving direction of the Abbess Gertrude
order and industry flourished, and a desire to learn became very
remarkable amongst these German ladies. Gertrude taught by her example,
by the power of her word, by the decision and good sense which made
themselves felt in all she said and did.
Above all things, are we told, she required and insisted upon a thorough
and careful knowledge of the Bible. She made it her constant care that
the convent should have an increasing supply of the best books, which she
either bought, or copied by means of some of the nuns. "It is certain,"
she said, "that if the zeal for study should decrease, and the knowledge
of Holy Scripture diminish, all true spiritual life would come to an
end."
There was soon an excellent school formed in the convent, which has left
proofs of its remarkable character, as in the case of the books of
Gertrude and Matilda, which were written by nuns of the convent. The
second part of the _Gertrude Book_, written by the Nun Gertrude herself,
is said to be an example of fluency in Latin rarely found amongst the
women of the Middle Ages.
The life at Hellfde was a very busy life, and had nothing of the usual
littleness of convent rule. With great spiritual fervour, there was at
the same time a spirit of liberty and cheerfulness that helped forward
the constant, serious, diligent work of the house. Studying and copying,
illuminating, working and singing, occupied the sisters, as well as the
care of the poor and the sick; and above all, the study of the Word of
God.
Besides the two sisters, the Abbess Gertrude and Matilda of Hackeborn,
two other nuns were distinguished by remarkable gifts. One of these,
called on account of her office the Lady Matilda, was the leader and
teacher of the choir, and also the chief teacher in the school of the
convent. She appears to be the same as Matilda von Wippra mentioned in
the Querfurdt Chronicles. Much is related of her great gift as a teacher,
and of the power which accompanied her words. "Her words," so it is said
in the _Gertrude Book_, "were sweeter than honey, and her spirit was more
glowing than fire." To her mainly was the school of Hellfde indebted for
its wide reputation.
When the Abbess Sophia von Querfurdt (the successor of Gertrude) resigned
her office in the year 1298, it was the Lady Matilda who took the
direction of the convent, which remained without an abbess for five
years. Matilda, however, filled this post for one year only, as she died
in 1299. She was remembered for "the burning desire which she had for the
salvation of souls," and was deeply lamented by the sisters whom she had
loved. They spoke often of her sweet voice, and her friendliness, and her
holy conversation.
Last, but not least, was the Nun Gertrude, whose name is attached to the
_Gertrude Book_, four of the five books of which were written in Latin by
an unnamed sister, and one book, the second, was the work of Gertrude
herself.
Her history is but little known. She was born on January 6, 1256,
apparently in Thuringia, and of poor parents, and from her fifth year she
had been an inmate of the convent. Very early she became remarkable for
her thirst for knowledge, and as a girl she devoted herself to severe
study, having the singular predilection of an enthusiastic love of
grammar. She soon left far behind her all the other nun-students, and
till her twenty-fifth year was entirely absorbed in secular learning.
It was then that the great era in her life, described by her in the
_Gertrude Book_, is to be dated. It was her conversion to God,[1] her
passage from death to life. She knew for the first time the love of Him
who had borne her sins; she knew herself justified by faith in Him. This
happened in the year 1281. More will be related of this remarkable woman.
It may have been that amongst the means which led to her conversion was
an event which happened sixteen years earlier, and which has yet to be
related. But before entering upon this part of the history of Hellfde, a
few words must be said regarding the dark side of the picture presented
to us in the records of this and other convents of the thirteenth
century.
The Dark Side of Hellfde.
That to Christian life in each of the past nineteen centuries there is a
dark side, is an obvious fact. But as the dark side has been constantly
regarded as the bright side by the Christians of each century, our task
in discovering it must not consist merely of a study of old records. We
have to compare the facts related, and the praise and blame attached to
them, with something less variable than the human conscience and human
opinion.
The "piety," attributed to the mediaeval saints, even when, as in the case
of the nuns of Hellfde, it actually existed, included a mass of
heathenish superstition, of unwholesome excitement of the brain and
nerves; of blank ignorance of the true meaning of a great part of the
Word of God; and in most cases, of abject submission to a fallen and
heretical Church.
The "best books" of which the Abbess Gertrude formed her convent library
contained grains of truth in masses of error, and some true facts
smothered beneath piles of legendary rubbish. To find the pearls at the
bottom of the sea of superstition and senseless legend, is at times a
despairing endeavour. Yet the pearls are there, and must have been there;
for the gates of the grave have never prevailed against the true Church
of God. Some there always were taught by the Holy Spirit of God, and
believing in the midst of their errors and wanderings the great eternal
truths of the Gospel.
If we are to find true faith, if we are to find truth at all in the
Middle Ages, we must find it amongst innumerable human inventions, and
shining like a gem in the dark caverns of human folly. Can we say that in
the nineteenth century it is otherwise? It were well to consider, and use
for the search-light we so deeply need, the unchangeable Word of the
living God.
Apart from the error taught by "the Church" in those past
ages--saint-worship, purgatory, the merit of human works, and many
more--a bewildering element of confusion presents itself in the
atmosphere of visions and revelations in which the "pious" perpetually
lived, or desired to live. For to live what has been called in our times
"the higher Christian life," meant at that time to be a seer of visions,
and a dreamer of dreams. The seeing of visions was an attainment as much
to be desired as to live in temperance, or godliness, or honesty.
Whilst in our days the wholesome fear of being sent to a lunatic asylum
serves as a check upon the wild imagination of undisciplined woman kind,
the strangest performances and utterances might in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries procure for the unfortunate woman a halo in the
pictures which perpetuated her memory.
It is well to look at the matter of visions and revelations in the light
of Holy Scripture. That the servants of God have seen visions divinely
shown to them, no one can doubt who believes the Bible; nor that they
have from time to time received direct revelations from God. Also, we
read as a promise made to Christian people, that "your young men shall
see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; and on My servants and
on My hand-maidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit, and they
shall prophesy."
In the first place, therefore, we must admit that visions and revelations
are, in the cases here mentioned, a reality, and a special gift of God,
in consequence of the exaltation of Christ to the right hand of God, This
is the explanation of these facts given by the Apostle Peter in the 33rd
verse of the 2nd chapter of the Acts.
But when we read the various accounts in the Acts of the fulfilment of
this promise, or the accounts in the Old Testament of similar visions and
revelations, we find one marked distinction between these accounts and
those given in mediaeval legends. In the Bible the point is, not the state
of exaltation to which such and such a man or woman attained, but,
leaving them out of the question altogether, we are simply told what it
was God showed or revealed to His servants. The seeing of visions is
never spoken of as being the highest state of Christian life in the New
Testament, or of spiritual life in the Old Testament. On the contrary,
God on some occasions gave revelations to the most unworthy, and simply
used them to speak the words He put into their mouths, whether they would
or no--a truth which he taught to Balaam by using an ass as an example.
But in mediaeval times, a _state_ in which the man, or more frequently the
woman, became liable to visions, was the thing mainly to be desired. It
was not as in the case of Amos, who was content to go on herding his cows
and picking his figs till the Lord gave him his message. The mediaeval
saint was trained and wrought upon by fasting and watching, by the study
of the wildest legends, and by a conviction that the seeing of visions
betokened a state of special holiness. This preparation of the mind, and
one may say mainly of the _body_, for an unnatural and unwholesome
condition produced the desired effect. The attacks of catalepsy, of
convulsions and other diseased symptoms, were hailed as supernatural
signs, and the disorder of the brain as a work of the Spirit. And from
one to another the infection spread, as the convulsions and delusions
excited envy and admiration, and a straining of the mind after something
of like sort.
The atmosphere, therefore, of the convent of Hellfde, and of many other
convents of Germany and Belgium, was scarcely a wholesome one; and we
must disentangle the spiritual teaching, which truly came from God, from
the "revelations" which, if spiritual at all, and not wholly the result
of disease, were the work of the evil one.
But whilst amongst facts well known to medical scientists, and amongst
facts belonging to still unexplored and unknown regions of psychology,
there may be quite enough to account for the stories, if really true, of
the mass of mediaeval visions, we must remember, also, that a great many
of these stories were the inventions of those whose interest it was to
compose them.
The disastrous fact remained that, by means of these fables, or of real
hallucinations, errors in belief and in practice were taught and
encouraged. It would not occur to those brought up in a belief of
superstitions, which had descended, under other names, from heathen
times, to sift or examine the legends which were their daily food. It is
for us to sift out from amongst the working of disordered brains, and the
inventions of ignorant people, the true teaching which they received from
the only Wise God, who cared for His loving, but ignorant, children of
the Middle Ages, as He cares now for His more enlightened, but alas! more
lukewarm, children of the nineteenth century.
There is one more remark to be made with regard to the accounts given by
really holy people of their visions and dreams. Occasionally, it was
merely a form of writing in symbol, as when John Bunyan describes having
seen in his dream Christian escaping from the City of Destruction. There
were two reasons for this in the case of the mediaeval "Friends of God."
It was, in the first place, dangerous to say in plain words that which
would have brought down upon them the curse of the Church. They spoke,
therefore, largely in symbol, whether by word or by forms and devices of
architecture. This language was common to them, and it was well
understood by those who had the key in their common faith.
In the second place, the want of adequate words to express spiritual
truths must always be felt, and much can be said in symbol which could
not be said at much greater length in plain speech. In how many words
could that be taught us which we learn from the one expression, "The Lamb
of God"?
And that many of those of whom the histories remain, were truly God's
children, truly taught by the Holy Ghost, and in continual communion with
Him as a real and solid fact, we cannot doubt. They lived a true life of
intercourse with Him, clouded and bewildered by the errors of their
times, by their unnatural bodily conditions, and by the fear of sinning
against the authority which some of them believed to be from God--the
fatal power of the Roman Church.
In this dreamland of visions and revelations the nuns of Hellfde
lived--or rather, into it they frequently wandered. They certainly at
times trod the solid earth, and fulfilled their various duties in a
practical manner. They also spent much time, more, no doubt, than many
spend now, in "the good land, the land of brooks of water, of fountains
and depths that spring out of valley and hills, and that drinketh water
of the rain of heaven." It was a familiar land to those who abode in Him
who is there.
And it is a relief to find that, in spite of their extreme love and
reverence for the Abbess Gertrude, they had no visions to report as seen
by her. She probably had more to do with creatures of flesh and blood,
with the strong wills and natures of the girls sent to her from the
castles of the nobles, than with creatures of her own imagination; and
she looked for revelations, and found them in the Word of God. "She
undertook the most menial work," writes one of the compilers of the
_Mechthild Book_, "and took a considerable part in the common employments
of the sisters. Sometimes she was the first and the only one at work till
she called others to help her, or led them to do so by her example and
her pleasant, friendly words. However busy she might be, she always found
time to visit each one who was sick, and inquire if there was anything
she needed. And with her own hands she waited upon them, either bringing
them refreshments, or soothing and comforting them.
"She read the Holy Scriptures very diligently, and with great delight, as
often as she could, and required of those under her care that they should
do the same. In prayer she was very fervent and reverent, she seldom
prayed without tears. She had a wonderful quietness of spirit; and at her
hours of prayer her heart was so peaceful and free from care, that if she
were called to speak to any one, or to other business, she went back
afterwards and prayed as quietly as if she had not been disturbed.
Amongst the children she was the gentlest and kindest, and with the older
maidens the holiest and most sensible of friends, and with the elder
women the most affectionate and wise. She was never to be seen idle;
either she had a piece of work on hand, or she was reading, or teaching,
or praying."
It can, therefore, easily be imagined that the Abbess Gertrude suffered
neither from catalepsy nor convulsions, but that she was a wholesome and
cheerful woman. In her last days she had a paralytic seizure, which
deprived her of the power of speech for some time before her death; but
she appeared to be fully conscious, and interested as before in the
sisters of the convent.
Matilda.
We must now go back to the time when the Abbess Gertrude was in full
strength and activity at the age of thirty-three. In that year, 1265,
there arrived at the convent of Hellfde an infirm, worn-out Beguine, a
namesake of two inmates of the convent--Matilda von Hackeborn and the
Lady Matilda of the choir. The Beguine went by the name of Matilda of
Magdeburg.
It would be interesting to know as much of her history as she related to
the nuns of Hellfde. As it is, we have but an outline of it. We know thus
much, that for Christ's sake she had "renounced worldly honour and
worldly riches." She had evidently been brought up, writes Preger, "under
the influence of court life and of knightly company, and we see that she
was accustomed to the manners of noble ladies, and to the language of the
higher classes. There is a chivalric tone in her expressions which seems
to link her words with the knightly poetry of her time, a poetry then at
the height of its cultivation. And as in her words, so in her
actions--there was a freedom and powerful independence which betoken high
birth."
Yet of her family and of her birthplace nothing is known. The date of her
birth we know, the year 1212. Apparently her home was not far from
Magdeburg. We are told of her brother Baldwin, later a Dominican friar,
that from a child he had been "brought up in all good manner of living
and in virtuous habits." Matilda, therefore, had no doubt been carefully
educated.
Others said of her, "that from her childhood she had led an innocent,
unsullied life." Of herself she says, "that in her earliest childhood her
sins were many and great. But that even then, whenever she had a trouble
and was sad, she prayed to God. I knelt down before my Beloved, and said,
O Lord, now I am unhappy. Can it be for Thy glory that I should go away
uncomforted! But I was the most simple and ignorant of any who ever
desired to walk in the way of life. Of the malice of the devil, I knew
nothing; of the misery of the world, I knew nothing whatsoever; and the
false profession of people who are called spiritual was also unknown to
me.
"But I must say this for the honour of God, that one day in my twelfth
year, when I was all alone, I received the greeting of the Holy Ghost,
unworthy sinner as I was, in such overflowing measure, that I never
afterwards could endure the thought of committing a great and deadly sin.
This blessed greeting was repeated day after day, and it filled me with
love and sorrow. I had learnt from God alone what is Christian faith, and
I made it my rule of life; thus my heart was kept pure, but of the
mysteries of God I knew nothing as yet.
"Whilst during my youth I lived with my friends and relations, amongst
whom I was the best beloved, the mysteries of God remained unknown to me.
But during that time I long had the desire that, without any fault of
mine, I might be despised by the world, whilst meanwhile the sweetness
and honour of the world seemed greater to me day by day."
This is all we can learn of the early years of Matilda in her unknown
home; but we have in few touches a picture of a rare and simple nature,
humbled by the sense of sin, but proud enough to desire to be despised;
sweet enough also to be loved with unusual love, and to find it a
delight.
In the year 1235, at the age of twenty-three, she tore herself from those
who thus loved her and went to Magdeburg, where she only knew one person,
a friend of her family. But she avoided this one friend, lest he should
persuade her to give up her determination to live alone for God. She
asked to be received in a convent, but she was refused. She was unknown
and without any means, and she was looked upon with suspicion and
contempt. She had her desire. She was alone and despised.
"But God," she says, "never forsook me. He filled me so continually with
the sweetness of His love, He drew me into such intimacy with Himself,
and He showed me such unspeakable wonders of His heart, that I could well
afford to lose the world and all that is in it."
What were the further wanderings of Matilda we do not know, but it was
only a little while after her refusal at the convent that she became one
of the persecuted order of the Beguines.
A word as to the Beguines.
There lived at Liege, at the end of the twelfth century, a priest named
Lambert le Begues. His name does not prove him to have been a stammerer;
on the contrary, he was a preacher of great fervour, and attracted
multitudes to his sermons. Le Begues was probably the name of his family.
At that time the Bishop of Liege, whose name was Raoul, was a man of evil
reputation. He had formerly been Archbishop of Mainz, but had been
deposed from his office on account of simony. At Liege he sold by auction
in the market-place the church preferments that fell to his share. The
clergy of Liege, who had not been shining examples of holy living even
before the arrival of Bishop Raoul, were now encouraged by his example to
live in a disorderly manner, and the morals of the town of Liege were at
a very low ebb when Lambert began his preaching there.
It would seem that at that time, both in towns and country places, there
were a number of wandering priests, who went about preaching and
administering the Sacraments, without being under the orders of any
special bishop. Probably they were more or less associated with the lay
preachers of the "Brethren," called in a vague way the Waldensian
Brethren, whose evangelising was carried on so extensively as to bring
upon them much persecution in the whole of Western Europe.
It was in order to direct this zeal for evangelising into more Catholic
channels that Francis of Assisi and Dominic founded the orders of
predicant friars; just as in our days the "Church Army" in England has
been formed to bring under Church authority the work of evangelisation,
which had been set on foot by the Salvation Army.
Lambert was apparently one of the independent priests who preached on
their own account, and was, therefore, free to speak unwelcome truths. He
had been originally a chorister in S. Paul's Church at Liege. He was
probably a man with means of his own; for not only did he preach
earnestly and constantly against the worldliness of the professing
Church, but he provided a practical means of separating from the world.
In a large garden which he had by the river side beyond the city walls he
built a number of small separate houses, which he filled with women of
all classes who desired to live a secluded life and devote themselves to
good works. In the middle of the garden he built a church, dedicated to
S. Christopher, which was finished in the year 1184. Lambert then placed
his community under the care of a priest.
These Beguine sisters took no vows; they were free to leave the community
when they chose to do so. They retained possession of their money and
property. They were under no convent rules; they simply promised
obedience to their Superior as long as they remained in the Beguinage.
But if they wished to return to ordinary life, or to marry, they had a
right to do so, as married women living, of course, no longer in the
community. They were not required to wear any special dress, but to be
clothed in "modest apparel."
They lived either alone in one of the little houses, or two or more
together, keeping house for themselves, and having their rooms very
simply furnished. They did their own baking and brewing; and if they had
no means of their own, they had some employment by which to gain their
living. This Beguine life was, therefore, regarded by the Church as less
meritorious than convent life, notwithstanding the fact that the Beguines
were employed in nursing the sick, attending to the poor, and in teaching
young girls reading, writing, and needlework. They were free to go out
with leave of the Superior and visit their friends, or the poor in the
town outside of which the Beguinage was built. Some of them might even
live in the town, wearing ordinary dresses, and keeping shops, or
maintaining themselves by their labour.
These rules of Beguine life were multiplied in various ways as Beguine
communities became rapidly very numerous in Belgium, Holland, and
Germany.
But to return to Lambert, their founder. His sermons, which contained
solemn warnings addressed to the higher clergy by reason of their evil
ways, very soon brought upon him persecution and ill-usage. During one of
his sermons in the great church of S. Lambert he was seized by order of
the bishop, and imprisoned in the castle of Revogne. He employed himself
in his dungeon in translating the Acts of the Apostles from Latin into
French.
Amongst other accusations which had been brought against him, it was said
that he had prophesied the destruction of S. Lambert's Church. Whilst he
was translating in his dungeon, it came to pass, on the 28th of April
1185, that the sexton of the church went up into the belfry to ring the
bell. He had taken with him a pan of hot coals in order to warm his
hands. A coal must have fallen through a crack in the floor into a space
below, where wood and straw were stored up. In the following night the
tower was seen to be in flames.
The fire spread quickly, burning not only the church, but the bishop's
palace, which stood near, the houses of the canons, and the neighbouring
churches of S. Peter, S. Trudo, S. Clement, and the Eleven Thousand
Virgins. For three days the whole town was in the greatest danger.
The charge against Lambert was now changed into an accusation of sorcery.
He was brought to his trial, but the "four discreet and learned men"
appointed by the bishop to judge his cause, could find no proof of any
offence with which he was charged. The people of Liege, who were
displeased at his imprisonment, began to clamour for his release; and he
himself demanded to be set free, that he might go to Rome and appeal to
the Pope.
His request was granted. The Pope acquitted him of all charges brought
against him, and authorised his work by instituting him formally as the
Patriarch of the Beguines.
He only survived this journey to Rome six months, and died at Liege
towards the end of the year 1187. He was buried before the high altar in
his church of S. Christopher. Some chroniclers relate these facts in a
slightly different way, according to which Lambert was sent to Rome by
the bishop with a list of charges brought against him. But the important
point remains proved, that he was the founder of the widely-spread
community of men and women known later as Beghards and Beguines.
For after his death, possibly before, communities of men were formed on
the plan of the Beguine communities. These men maintained themselves by
weaving or other handicrafts. They met together for meals and for prayer,
but did not have their possessions in common. They had no rule, but were
accustomed to wear simple clothes--brown, white, black, or grey.
As time went on, the ranks of the Beghards or Beguines were largely
recruited by the "Friends of God," with whom they seem at all times to
have been in constant intercourse; so that in the fourteenth century to
be a Beghard or Beguine, meant much the same thing as to belong to the
Waldensian Brethren. In consequence, their persecutions during the
fourteenth century amounted at last to extermination, their houses being
replenished from the ranks of "orthodox" Roman Catholics. The persons,
therefore, from that time onwards bearing the name of Beghards or
Beguines differed in nothing from members of Roman Catholic orders.
The Great Sorrow.
But to return to Matilda, who joined the Beguines at the time when they
had already earned for themselves the reproach of Christ, and when, on
the other hand, there were those amongst them who had wandered far from
the primitive simplicity of the first inhabitants of Lambert le Begues
garden-houses.
By these latter (though they, too, claimed to be the "Friends of God,")
Matilda was "bitterly despised." And she who had lived during her youth
in ignorance of "the false profession of people called spiritual" had to
learn amongst "the religious" many a sorrowful lesson. Not amongst
Beguines only, but on all sides the fact forced itself upon the heart of
Matilda that the Church was fallen from her first estate.
"I, poor creature as I was, could yet be so presumptuous as to lift up
the whole of corrupt Christendom upon the arms of my soul, and hold it up
in lamentation before God.
"And our Lord said, 'Leave it alone, it is too heavy for thee.' And I
made answer, 'O my beloved Lord, I will lift it, and bear it to Thy feet,
and cast it into Thine own arms, which bore it on the cross.' And God in
His pity let me have my will, that I might find rest in casting it upon
Him.
"And this poor Christendom, brought into the presence of the Lord, seemed
to me as a maiden of whom I felt bitterly ashamed.
"And the Lord said, 'Yea, behold her, blind in her belief, and lame in
her hands which do no good works, and crippled in her feet with evil
desires, and seldom and idly does she think of Me; and she is leprous
with impurity and uncleanness.'"
And the foremost in the guilt of Christendom she found to be those who
should have been the pastors and teachers, "the great he-goats, who are
defiled with all uncleanliness, and with frightful greed and avarice."
To the Lord, "the High Pope in Heaven," Matilda turned for guidance and
consolation. "When I wake in the night," she said, "I think, have I the
strength to pray as I desire for unfaithful Christendom, which is a
sorrow of heart to Him I love." She prayed for the priests, that from
goats they might become lambs, that they might forget the law of the
Jews, and think of the blood of the Lamb who was slain, and mourn over
the sufferings of the Lord.
"Alas for holy Christendom, for the crown is fallen from thy head, thy
precious jewels are lost; for thou art a troubler and a persecutor of the
holy faith. Thy gold is dimmed in the mire of evil pleasures, thy purity
is burnt up in the consuming fire of greed, thy humility is sunk in the
swamp of the flesh, and thy truth has been swept away by the lying spirit
of the world!
"Alas for the fallen crown, the holy priesthood! For thee there remains
nothing but ruin and destruction, for with spiritual power thou makest
war upon God, and upon His friends. Therefore God will humble thee before
thou art aware, He will smite the heart of the pope at Rome with bitter
grief.
"And in that grief and calamity the Lord will speak to him and accuse
him, saying, 'Thy shepherds have become murderers and wolves, before My
eyes they slaughter the white lambs, and the sheep are weak and weary,
for there is none to lead them to the wholesome pastures on the high
mountain side; that is, to the love and the nurture of God. But if any
know not the way to hell, let him look at the corrupted clergy, and see
how straightly they go thither. Therefore must I take away the worn-out
mantle and give a new mantle to My Bride, to holy Christendom.
"If thou, son pope, shouldst bring that to pass, thy days might be
lengthened. For that the popes before thee lived short lives, was because
they did not fulfil My will.' And it was as if I could see the pope at
his prayers, and God thus answering him.[2] And in the night I saw the
Lord in the dress of a pilgrim, and as if He had journeyed through the
whole of Christendom. And I fell at His feet and said, 'Beloved pilgrim,
whence comest Thou?' And He answered, 'I come from Jerusalem'--by which
name He meant the holy Church--'and I have been driven forth from My
dwelling. The heathen knew Me not, the Jews suffered Me not, and the
Christians fought against Me.'
"Then I prayed for Christendom; but the Lord answered with bitter sorrow
that He had been dishonoured and put to grievous shame by Christian
people, though for them He had done so great wonders, and had suffered so
great anguish.
"And so it is with me, that longing and humility and love, these three
blessed handmaidens, lead my soul up to God, and the soul beholds her
Beloved and says, 'Lord, I mourn because Thou art thus warred against by
those who are the dearest to Thee on the earth, by Christian people. I
mourn because Thy friends are sorely hindered by Thine enemies.'
"And the Lord answered me, 'All that befalls My friends, sin only
excepted, shall turn to them to joy, and for the glory of God. For the
suffering calls with a mighty voice saying, that beyond all worship that
can be offered Me is the patience that suffers, and if for a while I
comfort not, it is far better than that comfort should come from another
will than Mine.'"
That there were some, the "Friends of God," who shone like stars in the
dark night Matilda thus found, and rejoiced to find. "But that the eagle
soars to heaven," she said, "no thanks is there to the owl."
It was no wonder that Matilda was "much and continually despised" by the
priests of whom she gave so bold a testimony. The Lord, she said,
suffered in like manner, for thus was He put to shame because in Him was
the truth. It was probably for some such plain speaking that Matilda was
refused as an inmate of the convents to which she applied for admittance.
Matilda and Dante.
It was during the thirty years of Matilda's Beguine life that she began
writing the book which has preserved her memory down to the days in which
we live.
Not only does the book itself present Matilda to us as one of the most
remarkable people of her age, but in a book more widely known is found,
in all probability, the echo of her words, and the picture of herself as
she appeared to the imagination of Dante. It is not necessary here to go
into the proofs of this identification of the Beguine Matilda with the
"lady all alone who went along
Singing and culling flower after flower
With which her pathway was all painted over;"
the "beauteous lady, who in rays of love did warm herself." For those who
desire to trace the connection of Matilda's book with Dante's poem, the
proofs will be found in the first volume of Preger's "History of German
Mysticism," and in a lecture delivered by Preger in the year 1873 on the
subject of Dante's Matilda.
The resemblances between Dante and Eckhart have been remarked upon in a
recent work on Dante, where, however, no allusion is made to other German
writers.
"Any one who has read the discourses of Meister Eckhart, ... will be
struck by the frequent and close resemblances, not of thought only, but
of expression and illustration, which exist between him and Dante. So
frequent and so close are these, that the reader can hardly conceive the
possibility of their being due to mere coincidence."
But whence did Eckhart derive his expressions which reappear in Dante?
"Matilda," says Preger, "expresses herself in a language higher than that
of ordinary speech, and more fitted to the nature of heavenly things. And
it may here be remarked, how frequently the elements of the speech of
speculative mysticism, such as we may call the speech of Eckhart, are
previously to be found in the writing of Matilda. But Matilda herself was
not the creator of these expressions, for her poetical nature was
inclined rather to expressions of thought in a manner less abstract, and
appealing more vividly to the senses. But it would seem that before
Matilda and Eckhart, certain characteristic theorems of speculative
mysticism had become stereotyped in the German language. They form the
stock of that capital of speech by which, especially through Eckhart's
writings, the German language has been enriched. Matilda is, therefore,
of importance in leading us to the discovery of how far Eckhart was
indebted for his expressions to that more ancient store of language."
It would occupy too much space to trace here the remarkable connection
not only in general between the book of Matilda and that of Dante, but
between certain passages which almost repeat themselves in the later
book. Others, again, which are not similar, yet stand in relation to one
another. The City of Woe, for example, seen by Dante, is found also in
Matilda's book, but there it is "the City of Eternal Hate;" and thus in
many instances.
Matilda's book is commonly known by the name, "The flowing forth of the
light of the Godhead." She wrote it originally in Low German, but of this
original no copy is at present known to exist. Soon after her death,
which occurred in 1277, a Latin translation was made by a predicant friar
at Cologne, known as Brother Henry. Of this two copies remain, one of the
fourteenth the other of the sixteenth century. The loose leaves had been
first collected by another Brother Henry, also a predicant friar.
Afterwards a translation was made from Low German into High German by a
priest, Henry von Nordlingen, assisted by a friend. It was completed
after two years' labour in 1344. This Henry von Nordlingen, a friend of
Suso, gave the High German translation to Margaret of the Golden Ring.
Margaret gave it to the Waldschwestern in Einsiedeln. It was discovered
in the convent library of Einsiedeln by Dr. Greith in the year 1861. In
the year 1869 it was published in two forms by Dr. Gall Morel--first, the
High German copy as discovered at Einsiedeln; secondly, a translation
into modernised German.