Gratia Undecima Mille The Cult of the Eleven Thousand Virgins in Cologne

By Eleanor Deumens

Undergraduate Thesis Department of History 2011 Deumens 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ...... 2

Introduction ...... 3

Chapter One: Writing the Legend ...... 10

Cologne and Cult: growing up together ...... 10

An army of virgins ...... 14

Chapter Two: The King, the City and the Cult ...... 21

Finding the Bones ...... 21

An Incomparable Treasure ...... 22

Levata sunt corpora sanctorum martirum ...... 26

Chapter Three: The Bones Speak ...... 29

Female Visionaries ...... 29

The Book of Revelations ...... 32

Conclusions ...... 38

Appendix: Images ...... 41

Bibliography ...... 45

Deumens 2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project would not have been possible without the continuous support and

encouragement from these people: my wonderful advisor, Andrea Sterk, whose faith in me

kept me going whenever I felt inadequate to the task; Howard Louthan, who helped me find a

topic that continues to excite me; all the other professors who gave me new ideas and new

ways to look at my research, especially Elisabeth Ross and Florin Curta; Stephanie Wessling,

who never complained about my horrible German translations; the welcoming and helpful

staff at the Ruusbruck library in Antwerp, the Köln Stadmuseum and the Sankt Ursula Kirche

in Cologne; and especially my friends and family, who were always willing to read drafts of

this thesis. I also extend my sincere thanks to the University Scholars Program and the

Bridget Phillips Scholarship for the financial support that made my research in Germany

possible. Thank you all. Deumens 3

INTRODUCTION

Frequently admonished by divine visions of flame and by virtue of the most majestic

heavenly martyred virgins coming from the east, in fulfillment of a vow, the virtuous

Clematius restored this basilica on their land from the foundation up. It should be known

that if the body of anyone other than the holy virgins is deposited in this majestic basilica,

built on the site where the holy virgins spilled their blood in the name of Christ, he will

be punished by eternal hellfire.1

So reads the Latin inscription on the south wall of the choir bay in the Saint Ursula church in Cologne. Dated as roughly fourth century, this inscription is the earliest surviving evidence of the cult of the Eleven Thousand Virgins.2 According to the legend which developed over the centuries after Clematius’s inscription, this large group of young women accompanied a British princess named Ursula on a pilgrimage to Rome.3 On their return journey down the Rhine River, the virgins encountered an army of Huns menacing Cologne.

When Ursula refused to renounce Christ and marry the Huns’ leader, all eleven thousand virgins were slaughtered by the barbarians. In recognition of their sacrifice, God sent a fearful vision of an avenging army to the Huns, who fled, thereby saving Cologne. The

1 Clematius Inscription, circa 400. Translation from Scott Montgomery, St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne : relics, reliquaries and the visual culture of group sanctity in late medieval Europe (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2009), 10. 2 There is some debate about the dating of the Inscription, some scholars arguing that the stone was carved as late as the ninth or tenth century. For this paper, I have adopted the earlier date, which most of my sources agree on. Also, the Inscription does not number the virgins. It was only in the eleventh and twelfth centuries that they became the Eleven Thousand. See chapter one, below; and Joseph P. Huffman, Family, Commerce, and Religion in London and Cologne: Anglo-German emigrants, c. 1000-c.1300 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 208. 3 It is assumed that this occurred in the third or fourth century, though most scholars agree that the story is fictional. Thankfully, it is beyond the scope of this paper to prove or disprove the reality of eleven thousand virgin martyrs. Deumens 4

citizens gratefully venerated the virgin martyrs for their role in this miraculous salvation,

building the church which Clematius, allegedly a man of senatorial rank, restored in the

fourth century.

The Eleven Thousand Virgins became very important saints for the people of

Cologne, acting as spiritual patrons and protectors for the city. In medieval Christian society,

veneration of a particular saint by a community, family or individual was common. Saints’

cults were based on the belief in a reciprocal relationship between the person on earth and the

saint in heaven. In exchange for devotion and prayer, often accompanied by substantial

donations to churches or monasteries, the saint granted miracles such as extraordinary

healing, exorcism of demons, good fortune, or fertility. The saint also acted as an advocate

before God, lending his or her holy voice toward the salvation of the supplicant. There was

often a physical link to the saint in the form of a bone, a bit of hair, or a garment. This relic

channeled the saint’s power, and it was thought that the saint actually resided inside the

object. Another important aspect of the cult was the saint’s vita or passio, an account of the

life and death of the saint. This legendary history was the voice of the cult, telling the world

of the saint’s great holiness and conferring honor on the people and places associated with

the saint.4

4 On saints’ cults and medieval Christianity, see: Adriaan H. Bredero, Christendom and Christianity in the Middle Ages: the Relations between Religion, Church and Society, trans. Reinder Bruinsma (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994); Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints: its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981); Patrick J. Geary, Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978); Herbert Grundmann, Religious Movements in the Middle Ages, trans. Steven Rowan (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995); Gerhart B. Ladner, God, cosmos, and humankind: the world of early Christian symbolism, trans. Thomas Dunlap (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995); Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker, ed., The Invention of Saintliness, Routledge studies in medieval religion and culture (London: Routledge, 2002); Kenneth L. Woodward, Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines who becomes a saint, who doesn’t and why (New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1996); Miri Rubin, ed., Medieval Christianity in practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009) Deumens 5

An individual or community often tied their identity to their patron saint.5 The

association of the papacy with Saint Peter is a prominent example of this, as are the

connections between the various monastic orders and their sainted founders. In the case of

the Eleven Thousand Virgins and Cologne, the city created and expressed a unique identity

through its association with this specific saints’ cult. As the city developed from a Roman

capital to the seat of an archbishop and electoral prince, the cult grew along with it, adapting

the legend of the Eleven Thousand Virgins to the changing social and religious needs of the

Christian community. At the same time, Cologne gained an identity as an important Catholic

religious center because of its relationship with the virgin martyrs. This process is especially

marked in the twelfth century, when Cologne reached its peak of power and influence, and

simultaneously the cult of the Eleven Thousand Virgins gained unprecedented popularity

across Europe.

This thesis will explore the mutual influence between city and saint’s cult by

analyzing three transformative events in the cult of the Eleven Thousand Virgins during the

twelfth century. The first event was the publication of the Regnante domino, an account of

the legend of Ursula infused with a sense of adventure and grandeur to match the growing

power and prestige of Cologne. Secondly, a graveyard was discovered just outside the city

which was identified as the burial of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, providing Cologne with a

treasure trove of religious relics. Thirdly and finally, the legend was emended by a female

visionary monastic named Elisabeth von Schönau, who presented the Eleven Thousand

Virgins as a model of the ideal Christian society. Each of these events responded in some

way to social, cultural, religious, economic or political developments, and each had an

5 See Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints, 50-68. Deumens 6

impact on Cologne’s identity as a wealthy urban community and a Christian center rivaling

Rome or Jerusalem.

Most studies of the Eleven Thousand Virgins focus on the abundant and inspiring

artwork generated by this widely popular saints’ cult, though some also explore the literary

merits of the legend. Guy de Terverant, an early Ursula scholar, published a comprehensive

two volume study of the art of the cult in 1931. He begins with a brief examination of the

legend and the history of the cult, focusing as I do on the developments of the twelfth

century. He then explores the spread and impact of the cult in the art of the middle ages. His

work is foundational, containing a comprehensive list of major works of art as well as a

catalogue of extant manuscripts of the legend.6

In his 1985 book Sankt Ursula: Legende-Verehrung-Bilderwelt, Frank Gunther

Zehnder explores the “reachable, vivid personality” of St. Ursula herself. 7 He traces the

cult’s story from the Clematius inscription to the Golden Legend of Jacobus Voragine,

carefully comparing the different versions of Ursula’s legend. He also describes the various

religious orders founded in Ursula’s name, giving special attention to the Saint Ursula church

in Cologne. Zehnder spends a great deal of his analysis on the visual depictions of the legend

and the iconography of Ursula.

Most recently, Scott Montgomery approached the visual culture of the St. Ursula cult

as fundamentally dependent on the “adamant center of bones . . . the relics which provide the

skeletal armature for the cult of saints.”8 He argues that the artwork of the cult was meant to

be understood in the context of the presence of the relics themselves, which was equated with

6 Guy de Terverant, Le Legende de Sainte Ursule dans la litterature et l’art du moyen age, (Paris, 1931) 7 My translation of “greifbare lebedige Persönlichkeit.” Frank Gunther Zehnder, Sankt Ursula: Legende- Verehrung-Bilderwelt (Koln: Wienand Verlag, 1985), 7. 8 Scott B. Montgomery, St Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne, 8. Deumens 7

the presence of the saints themselves. Standing in among the relics, viewing the saint’s

journey toward Heaven, one is drawn along in a mental journey until one may spiritually join

the holy company. The emphasis for Montgomery is on corporate identity and the

welcoming embrace of thousands of sisterly saints.

Pamela Sheingorn and Marcelle Thiebaux, to whom I am indebted for their

indispensible translation of the Regnante Domino, have also contributed to the study of the

legend’s development in the twelfth century. They note, in the informative introduction to

their translation of the Regnante Domino, that this passio account emphasizes the virgins’

journey as a pilgrimage, “during this age that saw the launching of such costly journeys

among the ruling houses.”9

As I focus on the twelfth century and the series of transformations in the St. Ursula

cult culminating in Elisabeth von Schönau’s Book of Revelations about the Sacred Company

of the Virgins of Cologne, the recent scholarship on Elisabeth has greatly influenced my

argument. Anne L. Clark has done more than anyone on the Benedictine visionary,

translating her works and exploring her life, her relationship with her brother and her

superiors, and the mundane influences on her celestial experiences. Clark argues that

Elisabeth worked in her visions toward an understanding of the true and perfect Christian

society, an understanding that comes through clearly in the revelations about St. Ursula.10

9 The Passion of Saint Ursula [Regnante domino], trans. Pamela Sheingorn and Marcelle Thiebaux (Toronto: Peregrina Publishing Co., 1990), 8-9. 10 Anne L. Clark, Elisabeth of Schönau: Twelfth-Century visionary (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992); Elisabeth and Anne L. Clark, Elisabeth of Schonau: The Complete Works; Translated and Introduced by Anne L. Clark; Preface by Barbara Newman (New York: Paulist Press, 2000). In her preface to the translated works, Barbara Newman says of The Book of Revelations: “More strikingly, [Elisabeth] transforms a legend about a vast Amazonian army – for the martyrs were supposed to be virgins who had all renounced family, fled marriage, and eschewed the company of men – into a vision of harmonious friendship and collaboration between the sexes.”(xvi) This point will be developed later in the paper, but it is significant to point out now that both Barbara Newman and Anne Clark perceive Elisabeth’s relationship with her brother Ekbert as fully collaborative, while John Coakley sees Ekbert as more strongly and deliberately subordinating Deumens 8

My thesis also draws on the broader scholarship studying medieval Christianity and saints’ cults. Peter Brown makes the argument in his seminal study The Cult of Saints that

the relationship between the deceased saint and living follower was highly personal, much

like that which existed between Roman patron and client. Brown suggests that individuals

even built their own identities upon this relationship, which in some ways filled the

emotional void created by the fall of the Roman government. I am applying Brown’s

argument, about individuals in the fourth to sixth centuries, to a community in the twelfth.

Brown’s study of the cult of the saints has been foundational for scholars such as Patrick

Geary, who wrote a seminal study on relic theft, and Anneke Mulder-Bakker, an important

scholar of saints and saintliness.11

In the twelfth century, the new form of the legend of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, in

addition to the sudden abundance of relics discovered in Cologne, propelled the once small

and local cult into international fame. 12 The passio created by the merging of the Regnante

Domino and the Book of Revelations was included in the widely popular book of saints’ lives,

the Golden Legend. Artwork – altar pieces, reliquaries, and metal ware – bearing images of

the Virgins can be found across Europe, from England to Italy. Significantly, wherever the

Virgins traveled, they were always tied to their city, Cologne. Already famous for its

political and economic importance, Cologne became renowned as a city overflowing with

patron saints. Indeed, Cologne defined itself in relation to its Eleven Thousand Virgins,

Elisabeth to himself. John W. Coakly, Women, men and Spiritual Power: Female saints and their male collaborators (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 35 11 See Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints; Patrick J. Geary, Furta Sacra; Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker, ed., The Invention of Saintliness; see also: note 3, above. 12 On the abundant relics of the cult, Montgomery says: “the collected relics of the Holy Virgins would not even fit inside an ark made of all the fragments of the True Cross.” Scott B. Montgomery, St Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne, 5. Deumens 9

proudly displaying eleven marks for each thousand on its municipal crest.13 For the people

of Cologne, the Virgins were part of their identity as a city, as a people, and as Christians.

13 See Image 7, Appendix Deumens 10

CHAPTER ONE

Writing the Legend

—Cologne and Cult: Growing up Together—

Cologne has been politically and economically important since the time of the

Roman Empire.14 Situated on the Rhine River, it straddled several major trade arteries

connecting the North Sea and the British Isles to the Mediterranean.15 It was first established by the Germanic Ubii peoples of Gaul soon after the Roman conquest. As Gaul rose in importance, so too did Cologne. It evolved from barbarian village to a settlement recognized in 38 B.C. by the governor of Gaul, until it reached the status of Colonia, or city under Italic law, in 50 C.E. Only forty years after this, when the region was being reorganized under

Emperor Domitian, Cologne (known as Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium) became the capital of Lower Germania. 16

Paul Strait describes Cologne as “originally a veterans’ settlement.” 17 Over the first

three centuries C.E, its importance increased as a military base and an economic center,

though it seems that it did not quite surpass its northern counterpart, Mainz, which housed a

military command structure as well as troops. However, with a harbor and strong industry

14 For information on the history and development of Cologne, see: Ulrich Bock, The Museum of the City of Cologne: Introduction, guide and chronology, trans. Judith Rosenthal (Cologne: Museumsdienst Köln, 1995); Joseph Huffman, Family, Commerce, and Religion in London and Cologne; Horst Fuhrmann, Germany in the High Middle Ages c. 1050-1200, trans. Timothy Reuter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986); and Paul Strait, Cologne in the Twelfth Century, (Gainesville: University Presses of Florida, 1974). For information on German history in general, see: Furhmann and Otis Mitchell, Two German crowns: monarchy and empire in medieval Germany, (Bristol: Wyndham Hall Press, 1985); Brian Tierney and Sidney Painter, Western Europe in the Middle Ages 300-1475, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970). 15 I have included a copy of a helpful map from Tierney and Painter in the Appendix. (Image 1) 16 Bock, 2. 17 Strait, 3. Deumens 11 including a glassworks, Cologne flourished until 356/35518 when it was taken by the Franks, who looted the city and then left it to recover. At that juncture, much of the industry moved into rural areas, and Cologne suffered a period of recession.19

On the popular and controversial theme of continuity versus decline, Cologne remained an important religious center through this time of social and economic upheaval.20

Under Emperor Augustus (27 B.C.—14 C.E.), a shrine had been built and dedicated to Roma and to the Emperor.21 In the process of Christianization, such pagan sacred places were often replaced or superseded by Christian cult sites, especially the graves of martyrs.22 One such cult was apparently that of the Eleven Thousand Virgins in Cologne. The first written record of the virgins, the Clematius Inscription dated as early as the fourth century, records that “the virtuous Clematius restored . . . this majestic basilica, built on the site where the holy virgins spilled their blood in the name of Christ.”23 The inscription gives no details about the virgins themselves, but it does attest to the early presence of the virgins’ cult along with recent archeological evidence. 24 As Paul Strait explains, “the religious centers provided a point of

18 Bock and Strait disagree on date: Strait favors the first, Bock the second. 19 Strait, 3-6 20 Ibid, 6. Strait says “cultic center.” 21 Bock, The Museum of the City of Cologne 2: This was a shrine of the imperial cult, based on worshipping the dead and living emperors as heroes/gods. 22 This idea, that many pagan sites became Christian through the cult of saints, is mentioned in Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints. Brown argues that while there are parallels between pagan sacred sites and the Christianized sacred sites, the cult of saints was not simply a paganization of Christianity: for one thing, pagans would never treat the remains of the dead as Christians treated relics-bringing them into the towns among the living, for instance. The cult of the saints, according to Brown, displayed “radically new forms of reverence.” Brown, 22. 23 Originally dated as fourth or fifth century, an argument has been made that the inscription dates from the ninth or tenth century. St. Ursula-Cologne, Schnell Art Guide Nr. 2749, First English Edition (Verlag Schnell & Steiner GMBH Regensburg, 2010), 4; and Montgomery, St. Ursula, 9-10. 24 St. Ursula-Cologne, 2. In the nineteen forties and sixties, excavations unearthed remains of a fourth century basilica with tenth century additions beneath the modern Church of St. Ursula in Cologne. Deumens 12

attraction to Cologne even when it had lost most of its earlier economic and political

importance.”25

It is noteworthy that the beginning of the cult of the Eleven Thousand Virgins seems

to have roughly coincided both with the establishment of a bishopric in Cologne and also

with the invasion of the Franks. There was a Christian bishopric in Cologne as early as

313.26 It is possible that the first bishop established the cult to legitimize his office and bring

a sense of prestigious Christian history to his newly established see.27 The cult may also

have arisen as a direct result of the Frank invasion. The bishop might have founded the cult

to provide his congregation with a sense of security, reassuring them that no harm would

come to them while they were under the protection of the virgin martyrs. On the other hand,

if the virgins were martyred in around the third or fourth century, as we can assume from the

date of the Clematius Inscription, they may have been killed not by Huns, as later accounts of

their martydom said, but by Franks.28

The Clematius Inscription and the archaeological record tell of a church, and certain

ecclesiastical records from the ninth century, namely “a Corvey litany (c. 827-40), a

martyrologium of Wandalbert (848), and a charter of Lothar II (867),” attest to the activity of

a monastery devoted to the virgin martyrs.29 The martyrologium of Wadelbert is incidentally

the first mention of an Ursula connected with the virgins, though she is neither the leader of

the group, nor a British princess at this point. Also, there are only eleven virgins in these accounts. Apparently, later writers misread XI MV in the early manuscripts as eleven

25 Strait, 6 26 Bock, The Museum of the City of Cologne 2 27 These conjectures are based on a segment of Peter Brown’s second chapter where he discusses the uses bishops make of the cult of saints. For instance, Brown makes note of the fact that Bishop Ambrosius of Milan deliberately associated himself with newly found martyrs by translating their relics to a tomb under the altar of his new basilica. Brown, 36. 28 It was common for medieval writers to call any and all barbarians “Huns.” 29 Joseph P. Huffman, Family, Commerce, and Religion in London and Cologne, 207 Deumens 13

thousand virgins (undecim millia virgines) instead of eleven virgin martyrs (undecim

martyres virgines).30 It is not until a tenth century sermon that the story of a British princess

leading her companions to martyrdom is introduced. This sermon, given on the virgins’ feast

day in October, also compares them to an army on pilgrimage. 31

At the same time that the number of virgins was increasing, Cologne was on the rise

economically and politically. During the tenth and eleventh centuries, Cologne “developed

into the leading commercial city in Germany.”32 The city’s mint, controlled by the

Archbishop, was probably the oldest in Germany, and the coin produced in Cologne became

the favorite currency because of its stability.33 Cologne’s main industries were textile

production, metal working, and trade.34 The city’s merchants became infamous for their aggressiveness and persistence: several Italian cities “formally excluded Germans from the

Mediterranean trade, a sign of the strength of their competition.”35 Simultaneously, Cologne

was expanding in political power as well. By the tenth century, the bishopric of Cologne had

been promoted to an archbishopric.36 As was the general practice in the Holy Roman

Empire, the emperor granted the archbishop of Cologne a large territory to administer in feif,

and soon thereafter the archbishop became one of seven electoral princes who chose the ruler

of the Holy Roman Empire. 37 By the twelfth century, the archbishop also claimed the right

30 Huffman, 208; Zehnder, Sankt Ursula: Legende-Verehrung-Bilderwelt, 19-21; St. Ursula-Cologne, Schnell Art Guide, 3 31 De antiquissimo Sermone in Natali sanctarum undecim mille virginum, Acta Sanctorum, Octobris, Tomus IX. Bruxelles, Typis Alphonsi Greuse, MDCCCLVIII, 78-79; and Pamela Scheingorn and Mercelle Thiébaux, “Introduction” to The Passion of Saint Ursula [Regnante domino], 6. For the different versions of the legend over time, see also Zehnder, Sankt Ursula: Legende-Verehrung-Bilderwelt, 18-41. 32 Strait, Cologne in the Twelfth Century, 19. 33 Furhmann, Germany in the High Middle Ages, 24. See also Strait, 18-43. 34 Huffman, 11. 35 Fuhrmann, 27. 36 Bock, The Museum of the City of Cologne, 2 37 See Otis Mitchell, Two German Crowns, Furhmann, Germany in the High Middle Ages, and Paul Strait, Cologne in the Twelfth Century. Deumens 14

to crown the Holy Roman Emperor.38 Furthermore, several of the archbishops of the twelfth

century were imperial archchancellor for Italy, an extremely influential political position.39

With so much power and influence in the greater Empire to draw his attention, the

archbishop generally treated the city of Cologne with “salutary neglect,” and the city for the

most part flourished in peace.40

—An army of virgins—

It is not surprising, considering the burgeoning influence and wealth of Cologne, that

the city’s patron saints, the Eleven Thousand Virgins, would also be conceived in the twelfth

century on a grander scale than ever before. In the first place, the number of the virgins had

recently increased exponentially from eleven to eleven thousand.41 Around the year 1100, a

newly expanded version of the legend was published by an anonymous monk, who addresses

it to the nuns of the monastery dedicated to the virgins in Cologne.42 Known today as the

Regnante domino, this rendition of the legend of Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand

Virgins initiated a series of transformations in the cult, simultaneously responding to the social context of the recent Crusades and creating a perception of Cologne as a place equivalent to the Holy Land.

Pamela Sheingorn and Marcelle Thiébaux introduce the Regnante Domino as “a fully coherent narrative, more graceful, more accomplished than the earlier [accounts].”43 This passio account, a history of a martyrdom, builds a narrative of epic proportions out of the

38 Strait, 40. 39 See Huffman, Family, Commerce, and Religion in London and Cologne, 243; Strait, 40-42; and Furhmann, 145-146. 40 Strait, 43. See chapter three for the revolt of the merchants against the archbishop in 1074. 41 See discussion, above. Huffman, 208. 42 Scheingorn and Thiébaux, “Introduction,” to The Passion of Saint Ursula [Regnante domino], 8. This monastery is mentioned in several ecclesiastical records of the ninth century: see above, and Huffman, 207. 43 Scheingorn and Thiébaux, “Introduction,” 8. Deumens 15

early bits and pieces of the legend of St. Ursula and her virgin companions. In the traditional

formula of a saint’s vita, the author of the Regnante Domino describes Ursula’s whole life

beginning with her parent’s prayers for a child, which are miraculously answered. Ursula’s

parents, the king and queen of a realm somewhere in Britain, “devout in all the observances

of the Catholic faith,”44 raise her as a Christian, and of course she devotes herself from a young age solely to Christ. She grows up to be a great beauty, and the pagan king of a

neighboring kingdom strongly urges her to marry his son. She hates the idea of marriage as

she is “already truly united in spirit” to Christ, and so she prays for guidance from “her

Bridegroom [Christ].”45 Christ answers her prayers in a dream-vision, telling her what she

must do. She proposes to the pagan king that the engagement will last three years, so she

may make a pilgrimage to Rome and so that her pagan fiancé may be educated and baptized

as a Christian. This compromise is agreed upon, and Ursula is given eleven virginal

companions, each with a thousand virgins in retinue, to accompany her in her holy journey.

They travel down the Rhine River, passing through Cologne and Basel on their way.

The Regnante Domino does not describe this journey at length, but rather focuses on

the encounter with the Huns at Cologne on their way homeward. When they return to

Cologne they see that the city is under siege, and before they can escape the Huns have

murdered almost the entire company. The leader of the Huns halts the slaughter as soon as

he sees Ursula, struck by her beauty and nobility. He asks her to marry him, and when she

refuses him, unwilling to abandon her commitment to Christ, he shoots her with an arrow.

The martyrdom of the virgins opened the way for a miracle:

44 The Passion of Saint Ursula [Regnante domino], 13. 45 Ibid, 18. Deumens 16

For after the bestial savagery of the Huns had completed their slaughter, God brewed a

cup of wrath, confusion, and insanity for these would-be torturers [cf. Is. 51:17]. They

were given over to a false perception [cf. Rom. 1:28] – they believed they saw as many

battle lines of armed soldiers pursuing them as the bodies of the virgins they had slain.

And that fierce barbarian horde, accustomed to victory, did not know how to flee, nor did

they dare to make a stand.46

So the virgins, through their sacrifice, were instrumental to the salvation of Cologne. The

townsfolk repaid this debt by carefully and honorably burying the virgins where they had

been martyred. The author describes the growth of the cult, mentioning Clematius’ church,

and finishes with an account of one of the virgins named Cordula who had a separate local

cult of her own.

The Regnante Domino reads more like a high adventure story or an epic poem rather than a passion of a martyr. Traditionally, saint’s vita tell the story of a heroic individual grappling with Satan in the wilderness, or standing alone against the rage of pagan officials.

Ursula is extraordinary because of her companions: they act as a cohesive unit, a community

of martyrs, or even an army, since saints were often described as soldiers of Christ.47 From this unique group characteristic of the virgins, the anonymous author is able to deliberately evoke the imagery and idealism of the wildly successful First Crusade (1095-1099) in this story: the princess leads a veritable army into the east on pilgrimage with the understanding that they might be killed along the way, and they are martyred by a horde of infidels who were menacing a Christian city. Crusaders also conceived of their expeditions to the Holy

Land as a pilgrimage in the capacity of soldiers for Christ, liberating the Christians of

46 The Passion of Saint Ursula [Regnante domino], 30. 47 See Scott Montgomery, St. Ursula, for a complete discussion of the unique group sanctity of the cult of the Eleven Thousand Virgins. Deumens 17

Jerusalem from the infidel, with the possibility that they could attain martyrdom in the

battle.48 St. Ursula and her companions are explicitly compared to an army several times in

the Regnante domino. One example of this occurs just as the virgins are setting out on their pilgrimage:

. . . the maiden troops assembled before the princess St. Ursula on the appointed day.

Girded up as if for naval exercises, they awaited the orders of their commander.

Surrounded by her virgin army . . . she revealed to them, as if to the most loyal comrades-

in-arms, the secret of her plan. 49

There are other instances in the story, especially when the virgins face the Huns, that the idea

of the virgin army is reiterated, emphasizing a martyr’s role as soldier for Christ.

The parallel to the Crusades is drawn out in other ways throughout the Regnante

domino, the first being the virgin’s departure from Britian. In contrast to the usual modesty

of female saints, the princess and her retinue of “seemingly countless girls” are outfitted for

their journey in “royal splendor” and the ships built to carry them on their pilgrimage were

“sumptuously” decorated with “gold, silver and bronze.”50 Fulcher of Chartres describes how the Crusaders sewed “beautiful crosses, either silken or woven of gold,” onto their

garments and how the fleet was supplied with a “vast abundance of wine and grain” to feed

the “armies of innumerable people.”51 The Regnante domino emphasizes the grandeur and

opulence of Ursula’s journey, not only reminding readers of the vast wealth collected in the

Crusading fleets, but also celebrating the practice of pilgrimage itself. There were many

examples of pilgrimages by women of ruling houses throughout history, from Constantine’s

48 See Edward Peters, ed., The First Crusade: The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and Other Source Materials (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971) 49 The Passion of Saint Ursula [Regnante domino], 28. 50 Ibid, 20-21. 51 Fulcher of Chartres, “The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres,” in Edward Peters, ed., The First Crusade, 32-37. Deumens 18

mother Helena to two tenth century German noblewomen, which the author could draw upon

for inspiration.52 Another aspect of the tale which strongly evokes Crusade literature is the descriptions of barbarians. Ursula’s father fears that refusing a marriage alliance with the

neighboring barbarian kingdom will result in “the slaughter of men of every age, the

plundering of cities, the rape of married women and girls, the torching of churches, the

desecration of shrines,” etc.53

The virgins’ journey up the Rhine itself feels like a Crusader’s journey across the

Mediterranean, as the virgins travel by ship and disembark at several different cities along

the way, including Cologne. At the end of the journey, when they reach the true destination

of their pilgrimage by dying for Christ outside Cologne, the author of the Regnante domino

makes his most vivid and emotional comparisons. The tableau that greets Ursula and her

companions is familiar to any reader of Crusade accounts: the city is besieged. However, in

the Crusade accounts, usually the Christians are besieging a city held by infidels, but here the

barbarian horde surrounds the Christian city.54 The author describes the slaughter of the

virgins by the Huns, who fell on the defenseless women “just like wolves descending upon a

sheepfold,” and also paints a word picture of the aftermath by telling how the citizens of

Cologne “gathered up the scattered and lacerated limbs of the martyrs.”55 Such blunt

descriptions of the horrors visited upon Christians by barbarian soldiers are common in

Crusade accounts.

52 Pamela Scheingorn and Mercelle Thiébaux, “Introduction,” 8-9. 53 The Passion of Saint Ursula [Regnante domino], 17. 54 Ibid., 27. For accounts of the various sieges of the First Crusade, see Edward Peters, ed., The First Crusade 55 The Passion of Saint Ursula [Regnante domino], 27 and 31. Crusade accounts are infamous for recording all the gory details which were once glossed over to portray war as glorious. What was glorious about the Crusades was the divine purpose behind the expedition, and descriptions of slaughters emphasized the inhumanity of the enemy. See Peters, ed. The First Crusade. Deumens 19

The end of the Regnante domino returns to the theme of opulence, bringing to mind

the great riches the Crusaders gained in the conquest of the Holy Land, but instead of earthly

wealth, the martyrdom of the virgins is the “incomparable treasure.”56 Medieval Christians

valued gaining a place in heaven above all else, and martyrdom was considered the surest

path to the company of the blessed. The relics or body of a martyr, because it created a direct

link to that company in heaven, were also extremely valuable.57 In the Regnante domino,

imagery of jewels and flowers are used to express the preciousness of the virgins’ sacrifice.

Ursula is described as “a heavenly pearl . . . purified by the royal purple of her own blood,”

and as a “wondrous flower vase of the Lord . . . [gleaming] whitely with the lilies of

virginity.”58 The purpose of Ursula’s pilgrimage, after all, was to join her beloved

Bridegroom Christ in eternity. She received her reward, but so did the citizens of Cologne.

The purpose of a story like the Regnante domino, a saint’s vita, is to explain how a particular

saint came to have a cult and also to make the followers of the cult aware of how God has

favored them by sending them such patrons and protectors. Cologne, saved by the sacrifice

of the martyrs, is all the more blessed because it received the treasure of thousands of patron

saints.

This version of the legend of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, coming at the turn of the

twelfth century, reflected the grandeur and prestige of politically and economically powerful

Cologne in its epic narrative of the city’s patron saints. It was a widely published and

popular work, spreading the cult along the same routes on which Cologne’s merchants

56 The Passion of Saint Ursula [Regnante domino], 30. 57 For discussions of this aspect of medieval Christian society, see Adriaan H. Bredero, Christendom and Christianity in the Middle Ages; Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints; Patrick Geary, Furta Sacra; Anneke Mulder-Bakker, ed., The Invention of Saintliness; Rubin, Miri, ed. Medieval Christianity in practice 58 The Passion of Saint Ursula [Regnante domino], 28. Incidentally, the second image also emphasizes the group cohesion of the eleven thousand virgins, in that the vase holds all the separate lilies of the martyrs together. Deumens 20

traded. 59 At the same time, it influenced Cologne’s identity as a religious center. Through

the conscious construction of parallels to the Crusades, the Regnante domino portrays

Cologne as a German Jerusalem, the destination of an army of pilgrims who were martyred

in defense of the Christian town against the barbarian horde. Furthermore, the city’s wealth

of patron saints is perceived as incomparable to mere earthly riches, of which Cologne also

had an abundance. It seems the world was willing to recognize Cologne’s preeminence. For

instance, the Englishman William of Malmesbury described Cologne as “the greatest city, the

capital of all of Germany, full of material goods, and replete with the patronage of saints.”60

Just a few years after the completion of the Regnante domino, Cologne’s treasure of martyrs became material, when the graves of the Eleven Thousand Virgins were discovered.

It could be argued that without the Regnante domino’s testimony, the graveyard uncovered in

1106 would not have been identified as that of the virgin martyrs. Be that as it may, this newfound cache of religious relics did lead to a final transformation in the legend, and more importantly, further changed Cologne’s identity as the cult rapidly spread across Europe.

59 Sheingorn and Thiébaux note that over a hundred copies survive today across Europe. See Image 1 in the Appendix for a map of twelfth and thirteenth century trade routes. 60 Huffman, Familiy, Commerce and Religion in London and Cologne, 10. Huffman gives the original Latin in footnote 11 on that page (the translation is mine): “Colonia est civitas maxima, totius Germaniae metropolis, conferta mercimoniis, referta sanctorum patrociniis.” Deumens 21

CHAPTER TWO

The King, the City and the Cult

—Finding the Bones—

In the year 1106, a large burial ground was uncovered when Cologne expanded its old

Roman fortifications because of the civil war between the current Holy Roman Emperor,

Henry IV, and the papal faction trying to dethrone him, including his son.61 Nearing the end of his reign, Henry IV was facing the lingering effects of the Investiture controversy in this conflict with his son, soon to be Henry V, and the current pope, Paschal II. The pope had excommunicated Henry IV due to his continued disregard for the papal See and the German princes joined Henry’s son in open rebellion.62 Henry the elder turned to Cologne for refuge

and in 1106 “extracted an oath from the citizens that they would fortify the city and defend it

for him.”63 However, that same year Henry IV died, abruptly ending the civil war and

leaving Henry V the uncontested ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. 64 In Cologne, the

fortification project continued despite Henry’s death, extending the city walls to encompass

an area almost twice the size of the original Roman city. During construction the old

graveyard was discovered, on the north end of the city between the churches of St. Ursula and St. Cunibert.65

61 See Montgomery, St. Ursula, 19-20; Huffman, Family, Commerce, and Religion in London and Cologne, 208. This was in all probability a graveyard from Roman Cologne. Thankfully, the validity of the legend and the relics does not concern me here, only the results of the people’s faith in these relics. 62 Mitchell, Two German crowns, 38-44. 63 Paul Strait, Cologne in the Twelfth Century, 30-31.; he cites Annales Hidesheimenses. MGH, SS, vol. 3, p. 110-111 64 Strait, 30-33. 65 Ibid,30-33; see also image 2 in the Appendix, taken from Strait. Deumens 22

The graveyard was identified as the burial ground described in the Regnante domino,

which tells how the citizens of Cologne “spared neither private nor public expense” interring

the martyrs.66 Armed with this evidence from the cult’s primary text and also from certain

records “hidden in the archives of the church,” the Abbots of the Benedictine monastery in

Deutz, just across the Rhine river from the city, began exhuming the bodies of the virgins in

1156.67 It is unclear why it took fifty years for the citizens and clergy of Cologne to identify

and start salvaging these very important religious relics. One factor may have been that in

1156 there was a change of the guard, so to speak: Archbishop Arnold II of Wied was

replaced with Frederick II of Berg.68 Arnold had held the position of arch-chancellor for

Italy outside of his duties as archbishop, and had also crowned Emperor Frederick I. 69 He was therefore very secure in his political power-base. Archbishop Frederick’s election was disputed, and he may have influenced the monks at Deutz to help him stabilize his reign by excavating the graveyard.70 For whatever reason, in 1156 Abbot Gerlach of Deutz was

supervising the elevation and translation of the countless relics of the Eleven Thousand

Virgins.71

—An Incomparable Treasure—

At the physical center, and often the emotional and religious center, of a saint’s cult

were the relics of that saint. It was believed that these relics—fragments of bones, garments,

66 The Passion of Saint Ursula [Regnante domino], 31. See also: Montgomery, St. Ursula, 19-20; Huffman, Family, Commerce, and Religion in London and Cologne, 208. 67 Thioderici, Incipiunt Revelationes Titulorum , MGH, SS, vol 14, 569; Zehnder, Sankt Ursula: Legende- Verehrung-Bilderwelt, 39-40; Montgomery, 19-20; Huffman, 208; St. Ursula-Cologne, Schnell Art Guide, 4-6. 68 See Huffman, Family, Commerce, and Religion in London and Cologne, 243. 69 See Strait, Cologne in the Twelfth Century, 40 and 101 70 Strait, 41. Note: the biographical facts about these two archbishops come from Strait. The speculations are all mine. 71 Thioderici, Incipiunt Revelationes Titulorum , MGH, SS, vol 14, 569 Deumens 23

or artifacts associated with the saint—manifested and embodied here on earth the presence

(praesentia) and power (potentia) of the saint in heaven. Through the relics, a saint could

bestow blessings and miracles of healing and protection, in exchange for a community’s prayers and devotion.72 In Cologne, while there were accounts of miraculous healings

around the numerous relics in the city, they also emphasized the protective power of their

saints.73 One miraculous account tells that when the soldiers of Archbishop Engelbert II

attempted to retake the rebellious city in 1268, his forces were repelled by a handful of

townsfolk and a heavenly army of ghostly saints who guarded the battlements.74 It is

significant that the three major saints’ cults in Cologne venerate groups of saints: the Eleven

Thousand Virgins; the Three Magi, whose relics Archbishop Rainald von Dassel brought to

Cologne in 1165; and St. Gereon and the Theban Legion, another local cult as old as the

virgins. Cologne was, quite literally, protected by armies of saints.

Possessing the relics of a saint conferred great importance on a city or a church.75

The miracles surrounding the relics drew pilgrims from across Europe, which not only increased a location’s religious importance but also boosted the local economy. Often, major pilgrimage routes paralleled major trade routes. Cologne was firmly situated on a major trade and pilgrimage route, originally a Roman road following the Rhine.76 It is also important to

note that Cologne was the seat of an archbishopric, which had developed alongside the cult

72 See Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints, Patrick J. Geary, Furta Sacra, and Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker, ed., The Invention of Saintliness 73 For example, Hildegard von Bingen supervised an exorcism of a Cologne woman who had visited numerous shrines alone to no avail. In this story, the powers of Hildegard are paramount, rather than the miraculous powers of a relic. Sabina Flanagan, Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179: A Visionary Life (London & New York: Routledge, 1989), 166-171. 74 This incident is commemorated by a relief carving set in the wall at the place of the attack a hundred years after the event. It depicts the soldiers of Engelbert breaching the wall, but repulsed by ranks of saints, half of which are women (the Virgins). The other half represent St. Gereon and the Theban Legion, the third corporate saint of Cologne. Exhibit, Stadtmuseum, Köln, July 2010. 75 For explorations of that importance, see Peter Brown, Adriaan Bredero, Patrick Geary, Horst Furhmann, etc. 76 Paul Straight, Cologne in the Twelfth Century, 3-7 and Horst Fuhrmann, Germany in the High Middle Ages, 24-27. See also image 1, Appendix Deumens 24

of the Eleven Thousand Virgins since the fourth century.77 Bishops went to great pains in

medieval Europe to associate themselves with the local saint.78 Possession of relics, usually

installed under or near the altar where the bishop presided over the service, conferred

authority to the bishop.79

Since the relics were so important, pillaging relics and establishing fraudulent relics

were not uncommon.80 As Patrick Geary put it, “relics were excellent articles of trade”:

they were generally small, easily transported, and beneficial to buyers, sellers and local

authorities.81 There are numerous accounts of relic theft. In one instance in 1039, a Duke

stole the relics of St. Adelbert from Gnesen in order to establish a new archbishopric in

Prague.82 Another account tells how an Englishman attempted to kidnap a relic of one of the

Eleven Thousand Virgins, but was thwarted by the miraculous power of the saint herself.83

There was a relationship between saint and devotees. It was believed that relics were revealed to certain worthy people by the saint or even God himself, and that a saint would turn their back on the community if its faith degenerated. This was tied to relic theft because the justification, often, was that the saint willed the theft to take place. If the saint did not want to be stolen, the argument went, he or she would be more than capable of thwarting the thief.84

Relics, encased in an ornate reliquary and surrounded by artwork depicting the saint’s

life, had a powerful emotional and psychological impact on the viewer. The saint felt very

close, as though he or she were in the room with the congregation. The huge number of

77 Bock, The Museum of the City of Cologne; see also chapter one, above. 78 One notable example was Bishop Ambrose of Milan: see Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints, 36 79 Brown, 36 80 See Bredero, Christendom and Christianity in the Middle Ages and Geary, Furta Sacra 81 Geary, 63 82 Furhmann, Germany, 22 83 Geary, 62 84 See Geary, Furta Sacra Deumens 25

relics of the Eleven Thousand Virgins displayed in the St. Ursula Church in Cologne took

advantage of this affect to deliberately surround the visitor with saints. In that church,

reliquary busts, often made of precious metal or wood and containing a relic, decorate all the

inner spaces of the church, looking down from the balconies onto the nave and overseeing

the congregation from the altar.85 Paintings depicting the events of the saints’ lives decorate

the apse behind the altar, drawing the viewer into the legend.86 The church is decorated by

relics in often surprising ways. For example, in the Golden Chamber, a small chapel to the

right of the entrance, the upper walls are actually covered in bones.87 The overall affect is

that one is encompassed by the living saints and welcomed into the company of the virgin

martyrs.88

Given the socio-political importance and emotional impact of religious relic, it is no

surprise that Cologne felt blessed by the “incomparable treasure” of relics being exhumed

from the graveyard found in 1106.89 The graveyard yielded a countless number of relics

over the decade from 1156 to 1164 when the Abbots of Deutz supervised the excavations.90

Since the virgins were considered patrons of mariners and traders due to their pilgrimage by

ship down the Rhine, the relics and the cult traveled along with Cologne’s merchants to all

parts of Europe, most notably England and Italy.91 It is also likely that the virgins became

the patrons of merchants because of their association with Cologne, a town famous for its

85 See images 4 & 5, Appendix. 86 See images 4 & 6, Appendix. Image 6 is not the cycle from the church of St. Ursula, but a similar cycle painted for another church in Germany. The same events are depicted in every cycle of St. Ursula, however, so this is a fair representation of what the visitor to any St. Ursula shrine/chapel/church would have seen. 87 See image 3, Appendix. 88 See Scott Montgomery, St. Ursula, 47-58 and Zehnder, Sankt Ursula, 49-68 for an extended analysis of the effects of the St. Ursula church. 89 The Passion of Saint Ursula [Regnante domino], 30. 90 Scott Montgomery joked that “the collected relics of the Holy Virgins would not even fit inside an ark made of all the fragments of the True Cross.” Montgomery, St. Ursula, 5. 91 Montgomery, St. Ursula, 40-46. See Image 1 in Appendix for twelfth century trade routes. Deumens 26

traders. Cologne quickly gained an international reputation as a city with a supply of relics as abundant as Rome itself.92 For instance, the Englishman William of Malmesbury

described Cologne as “the greatest city . . . replete with the patronage of saints.”93 In the

sixteenth century, an antiquarian named Gelenius called Cologne a “sacrarium, a massive

living repository of relics.”94 The prestige of Cologne, which was already an important

archbishopric and a powerful economic center, was greatly increased by the relics of the

Eleven Thousand Martyrs.

—Levata sunt corpora sanctorum martirum—

In the year 1156, the north edge of Cologne was bustling with industrious monks. It

probably looked both like a parade and like an archaeological dig. Under the direction of

Abbot Gerlach of Deutz, the area was combed for signs of the graves of the Eleven Thousand

Virgins. They were looking for saints, which meant there would be certain signs, such as

sweet smells, perhaps feelings of great awe or joy, to indicate that the body of a holy martyr

was nearby.95 They then carefully exhumed the body, and in each grave they found a stone

bearing the name and station of the martyr. The bones were then carefully assembled in an

appropriate container and transported across the Rhine, accompanied by hymns of the Virgin

Mary, to the monastery church of St. Heribert at Deutz. This small parade probably occurred

92 Montgomery, St. Ursula, 20-46 93 Huffman, Familiy, Commerce and Religion in London and Cologne, 10. Huffman gives the original Latin in footnote 11 on that page (the translation is mine): “Colonia est civitas maxima, totius Germaniae metropolis, conferta mercimoniis, referta sanctorum patrociniis.” 94 Howard P. Louthan, “Imagining Christian origins: Catholic visions of a holy past in central Europe” in Historia Sacra: Visions of Christian Origins in the Renaissance World, eds. Simon Ditchfield, Howard Louthan, Kate van Liere (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming): 14. Louthan cites: Gelenius, De admiranda sacra et civili magnitudine, pp. 113–21; 144–5. 95 It was thought that saint’s bodies did not decompose because they were proof of the promised resurrection at the end of days, and therefore they smelled sweetly and were usually found intact. Furthermore, the true Christian would be able to sense the presence of the holy saint through an emotional response such as awe or joy, while the demon-ridden would feel fear and pain. Deumens 27

several times a day, as each body was ceremonially elevated and transported to a more

appropriate resting place.96 Some of the relics traveled to other parts of the city: a great

many were given to the church of St. Ursula, several came to the Cologne Cathedral, a few

went to St. Cunibert, and some were gifted to other monasteries and churches outside the

city.

Though some enthusiastically embraced the authenticity of these relics –Thioderic, a

monk of Deutz who left a first-person account of the exhumation process, for one placed his

trust in the names on inscriptions found with the bodies and in ecclesiastical records

(“nomina vel titulos in eorum sepulchris inventos et in archivis euisdem aecclisiae

reconditos”97) – Abbot Gerlach himself seems to have harbored doubts. According to the

Regnante domino, which fifty years after its publication had become the authoritative text for

the cult, the company of the Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne included only virginal

young women. Among the bones found in this graveyard, however, were the bodies and

identifying tablets (“titulos”) of men and boys. In fact, many were prominent churchmen,

even a Pope, which are not mentioned at all in the Regnante domino.98 Abbot Gerlach

therefore sought a higher authority to account for the anomalous bones and certify the

authenticity of the relics.

Gerlach turned to Elisabeth von Shönau, a young Benedictine nun renowned as a

visionary, to validate the grave markers discovered alongside the relics. A fellow

Benedictine, Gerlach trusted Elisabeth to discover the truth because she famously had a

96 I am recreating this scene from a firsthand account and a later record: Thioderici, Incipiunt Revelationes Titulorum , MGH, SS, vol 14, 569-570. and De titulis qui Coloniae reperti dicuntur simul cum corporibus SS. Martyrum, Acta Sanctorum, Octobris, Tomus IX. Bruxelles, Typis Alphonsi Greuse, MDCCCLVIII, 85-90. 97 Thioderici, Incipiunt Revelationes Titulorum, 569 98 Anne Clark, “Introduction” to Elisabeth of Schönau: The Complete Works, 18-19 Deumens 28

unique access to the denizens of heaven, receiving personal visits from them in her visions. 99

As Elisabeth explains:

“He hoped something about [the relics] could be revealed to me by the grace of God,

and he wanted it to be confirmed through me whether or not they should be believed.

Indeed, he was suspicious that the discoverers of the holy bodies might have craftily

had those titles inscribed for profit.”100

Gerlach and Elisabeth here show their wariness of the thriving trade in fraudulent relics.

Gerlach was not asking for a vita, or life of the saint. A well-known vita already existed in

the Regnante domino. He was requesting a certification of the troubling relics exhumed in

Cologne, especially since these persons were not mentioned in the Regnante domino.

Elisabeth’s Book of Revelations therefore had to amend the legend, rewriting Ursula’s vita to

an extent. As her visions incorporated the new names into the story of Ursula, Elisabeth

simultaneously forged an image of an ideal Christian society in bygone days, giving the

legend a powerful message beyond the high adventure of the story which greatly appealed to twelfth century audiences.

99 Anne L. Clark, Elisabeth of Schönau, 37-40 100 Elisabeth, and Anne L. Clark, The Complete Works, 215. Deumens 29

CHAPTER THREE

The Bones Speak

—Female Visionaries—

St. Ursula and her company of virgins, as a group of lay women who devoted their lives to Christ, became important saints for the growing movement of female monastics and

lay religious in the twelfth century. Since each one of the Eleven Thousand Virgins’

individual identities is subsumed to the corporate identity of the group, they especially

became the ideal role models for cloistered women. 101 Hildegard von Bingen and Elisabeth

von Schönau —both of them famous female monastics and powerful visionaries—made

significant contributions to the growing cult of the Eleven Thousand Virgins.

Hildegard was an extraordinary woman, even by today’s standards. She grew up as an enclosed anchoress, only leaving that small cell after her mentor died. She then founded a

convent on her own at Disibodenburg, wrote an impressive body of religious works based on

the visions she received from God, went on several preaching tours, and gained the approval

of the Pope himself for her work and visionary insights. She was at various times in her life

an anchoress and holy woman, a prophet, seer and visionary, a scholar, a composer, a

pioneer, a healer, an exorcist, and an abbess.102 Her works dealing with St. Ursula and the

Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne comprise a set of hymns to be sung on their feast day.

They are beautiful and evocative, celebrating virginity as much as the specific Virgins.

101 Montgomery, St. Ursula, 40-46. For the more information on the women’s religious movements, see Grundman, Religious Movements in the Middle Ages, 75-152. 102 See Sabina Flanagan, Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179: A Visionary Life (London & New York: Routledge, 1989) Deumens 30

Hildegard tells the story of Ursula in her song “O Ecclesia,” so entitled for the first line,

though the implicit linkage between Ursula and the Church was probably deliberate. The

song focuses on the princess’s rejection of the world and her eventual martyrdom or

marriage/joining with Christ, the aspects of the legend most significant to the female

monastics for whom Hildegard wrote the hymn. Hildegard uses the imagery of blood, flowers and jewels to convey the royalty and purity of the martyrs. The hymn ends, in fact, with a striking image of Ursula and her Virgins becoming a pearl necklace that chokes the

Huns to death.103 This recalls similar language in the Regnante domino, and again

emphasizes the cult perception of Ursula and her companions as a treasure.

Hildegard often received letters from monks, nuns and clergymen asking for her

advice about their dreams, life choices, religious calling or more specific problems like legal

disputes or sick members of their communities.104 In one such exchange, she wrote to the

Benedictine nun Elisabeth von Schönau, giving the younger visionary advice and guidance.105 She warns Elisabeth that “the world is changed,” and encourages her to stand

steadfast despite the opposition of impure Christians.106 Both visionary women were part of

this changing world, which in the eleventh and twelfth centuries saw a powerful movement

of religious renewal. The response to a perceived degeneration of the Catholic Church, this

surge of religious feeling manifested itself in not only various church reform efforts, most

importantly the Cluniac movement and the Reform Papacy, but also an unprecedented lay

103 Flanagan, Hildegard of Bingen, 135-137 and Hildegard of Bingen and Sabina Flanagan, Secrets of God: Writings of Hildegard of Bingen, trans. Sabina Flanagan (Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1996) 104 See Flanagan, Hildegard of Bingen, 158-166 105 Ibid., 158-166; Hildegard of Bingen and Sabina Flanagan, Secrets of God, 163-165; and Clark, Elisabeth of Schönau, 21-25. 106 Hildegard, Secrets of God, 164 Deumens 31

and women’s religious movement.107 Both Hildegard and Elisabeth demonstrated their zeal

for reforming the church in their works.

Elisabeth lived in the Hirsau monastery at Schönau, only a little way down the Rhine

from Hildegard’s convent at Bingen. Hirsau was a reform movement within the Benedictine

monastic order which encouraged the creation of joint monasteries of men and women

monastics allied to local bishops and lay nobility. The Hirsau reformers were devoted to

spiritual renewal within the institutions and social structure of the existing Church.108

Elisabeth entered the convent at age twelve, and eleven years later she began to have ecstatic

visions. Her visions often occurred in conjunction with liturgical services, and were

preceded by physical suffering: “while the office of the Mass was being celebrated for them,

a certain torment of heart came upon me . . . when I had been tormented for a long time, I

went into ecstasy.”109 During these out-of-body experiences, she often met someone, an

angel or saint, who explained to her what she was seeing. Sometimes this guide returned in a

series of multiple visions, such as the Virgin Mary, to explain or reveal complex insights into

God’s wisdom.110

Elisabeth’s brother Ekbert, a former canon who retired to the monastic life in order to

be near his famous sister, recorded and edited her visions for publication, but also

encouraged her to ask searching theological questions during her visionary experiences.111

Ekbert must be recognized as the lens through which we see Elisabeth, as she never wrote

her own visions down. According to John Coakley, Ekbert carefully establishes himself as

107 See Bredero, Christendom and Christianity in the Middle Ages and Grundman, Religious Movements in the Middle Ages 108 Clark, “Introduction” to The Complete Works, 2 109 Elisabeth, The Complete Works, 215 110 Clark, Elisabeth of Schönau, 68-89 111 Ibid., 50-67 Deumens 32

Elisabeth’s “director,” the person who not only directs the communication of her visions to

the wider world but who also directs her subject matter.112 Elisabeth’s prolific theological

works around 1156, when her visions up to this point had dealt with more personal experiences of God and Heaven, are evidence of Ekbert’s guiding hand toward broader and

deeper ecclesiastical issues. In this period, Elisabeth reached a peak in her visionary power,

producing several tracts of revelations focused on reforming and revitalizing the church from

within the existing institutions and social structure.

One such tract was The Book of Revelations about the Sacred Company of the Virgins

of Cologne. However, the catalyst for this work was not Ekbert but Abbot Gerlach of Deutz,

who was excavating the burial ground of the Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne in

1156.113 The Abbot had found several anomalous bodies, labeled by accompanying stone

markers, mixed among the graves, including the body of a mysterious pope. Urgently

needing some proof that these dubious bodies were the true relics of the company of martyrs

led by Ursula, Gerlach turned to Elisabeth, who was uniquely suited for the task because of

her miraculous visionary power to converse with saints in heaven.

—The Book of Revelations—

When Abbot Gerlach asked Elisabeth to validate the relics he was elevating in

Cologne through her powers as a visionary, he sent along two of the saints’ relics with their

stone grave markers. One of those saints, Verena, became Elisabeth’s guide and teacher,

answering her timid questions about the Cologne martyrs in a series of revelations which her

brother Ekbert recorded in Latin, edited and published into one book entitled The Book of

112 Coakley, Women, Men and Spiritual Power, 35 113 Clark, Elisabeth of Schönau Deumens 33

Revelations about the Sacred Company of the Virgins of Cologne.114 The work is organized according to Elisabeth’s visions, each short section telling how Elisabeth asked St. Verena of this or that person discovered in the graveyard outside Cologne and how Verena answered

with a short biography of the person. As her visions incorporated the names found by

Gerlach into the story of Ursula as told in the Regnante domino, Elisabeth simultaneously

created a powerful image of an ideal Christian society of long ago.

The Book of Revelations accounted for the numerous male remains found among the

virgins by emphasizing the importance of family to the church. Men who are close blood

relations were considered acceptable companions to virgins in church doctrine and monastic

rules, as shown for instance by Elisabeth and Ekbert’s close relationship. In The Book of

Revelations, Elisabeth gives us many examples of family ties between the virgin martyrs and their male companions. For instance, the two saints whose relics were sent to Schönau, Saint

Verena and St. Caesarius, were cousins. Thus Caesarius, a simple lay soldier, out of love for his cousin, followed her to martyrdom along with many other soldiers sent by Ursula’s father to man the ships and guard the virgins.115 Similarly, Archbishop James and Bishop

Maurisus, who joined the virgins after meeting them in Rome, both had nieces in the sacred

company.116 Saint Ursula’s own aunt, a formidable woman named Gerasma, “guided them

and in the end she endured martyrdom with them.”117 Bringing even more honor unto the convent at Schönau, their newly instated Saint Verena was cousin to St. Ursula herself.118

Another very important addition to the Ursula legend is the expanded story of young King

Etherius, Ursula’s pagan fiancé. In Elisabeth’s version, Etherius applies himself rigorously

114 Clark, Elisabeth of Schönau, 37-40. 115 Elisabeth, The Complete Works, 214 116 Ibid, 218-19 117 Ibid., 224 118 Ibid., 226 Deumens 34

to his studies as a catechumen, and once he is baptized, he receives a vision form God urging

him to join his fiancé in martyrdom. Not only does he travel to meet Ursula at Cologne, but

he also convinces his mother and sister to join him.119 Elisabeth’s emphasis on family ties

brings the ideal of love for family, be it blood relations or fellows in one’s church or religious order, to the forefront of the narrative. This is noteworthy in a time when women were not always encouraged or supported by their families in their decisions to join the Church. That she joined at twelve, along with her family’s historical involvement in the church, hints that

Elisabeth was supported, and that she felt such loving support was important to religious life.120 In addition, the deep sense of familial ties knitting the group together evokes the

tribal roots of which the Germans were fiercely proud.121 The company of St. Ursula is

united as much by the kinship of a common homeland, Britain, as by the actual blood

relations between them.

The most problematic of Abbot Gerlach’s discoveries among the graves at Cologne

was the body of a Pope Cyriacus, who appears neither in the Regnante domino nor in records

naming past popes.122 According to Elisabeth’s visions, Cyriacus was the pope who

welcomed Ursula and her company to Rome. In another instance of blood and kinship ties,

“he came from [the virgins’] homeland” and “had many relatives among [them].” 123 The night after the virgins came to Rome, he received a vision from God telling him to join these virgins in martyrdom. The reason his name is not in the papal records is due to the fact that he only held the apostolic seat for about a year before his sudden abdication; and because he abandoned the papacy so abruptly the cardinals had him expunged from the records. They

119 Elisabeth, The Complete Works, 221. 120 Anne L. Clark, Elisabeth of Schönau 121 This sense of familial duty and tribal allegiance appears in popular literature such as the Niebelungenleid. 122 Huffman, Family, Commerce, and Religion in London and Cologne , 209. 123Elisabeth, The Complete Works, 217 Deumens 35

“thought it was absurd for him to turn aside as if following the foolishness of little

women.”124

Elisabeth emphasizes that not only did the virgins receive support from male and

female relations, but they were also properly guarded, cared for and ministered to by the

clergy. This is an important aspect of Christian community for Elisabeth and others of her century who felt the church was corrupted and the clergy, especially the pope, were failing in

their pastoral duties. 125 In The Book of Revelations, the figure of Pope Cyriacus stands as an

example of the perfect church leader, the good priest in contrast to the modern pope accused

of corruption and negligence. He treats Ursula and her companions with the honors they are

due when they arrive in Rome, and administers the sacraments as he should: he “gave the

blessing of sacred baptism to many in our society who were not yet reborn in Christ.”126

Furthermore, Cyriacus relinquishes his position of power on God’s orders, and even though he is ridiculed and expunged from the records, he follows Ursula’s group to their martyrdom, along with many other high ranking clergy such as Bishop Pantalus, Archbishop James and

Bishop Maurisus. These men continue to care for the spiritual health of the company: “on

Sundays they would come into our midst, strengthening us with the divine word and communion of the Lord’s sacrament.”127 Though travelling together, Elisabeth notes that

they “had their lodgings separate.”128 Along with the holy and diligent exercise of institutional ecclesiastical power displayed by these men, Elisabeth establishes a monastic structure around the virgins’ lives. The two sexes live separately, are ministered to by

124 Elisabeth, The Complete Works, 217 125 For information on pre-Reformation religious upheavals, see Grundman, Religious Movements in the Middle Ages and Bredero, Christendom and Christianity in the Middle Ages 126 Elisabeth, The Complete Works,217 127 Ibid., 219 128 Ibid., 219 Deumens 36

bishops on Sundays, and even before their pilgrimage to Rome they lived apart on their

ships. Not only is the ecclesiastical leadership idealized, but Elisabeth is showing the

monastic life to be idealized as well.

Secular authority figures are also portrayed as supportive of the religious calling of

these women and as allied to the Church. Due to the fact that many of the company are of

royal lineage, royalty is strongly associated with the saintly in The Book of Revelations.

Most illustrative is the account of Ursula’s father Maurus and his sister Gerasma. Not only

did Maurus let his daughter postpone a marriage of state with this pilgrimage, but he also

furnished her with eleven ships on which Ursula basically cloistered herself. His only

attempt to persuade Ursula, his letter to his sister Gerasma “telling her the will of his

daughter” and “[asking] to hear her advice because he knew that she was a woman of great

wisdom,”129 actually ends by convincing Gerasma to abandon her kingdom to her son and

join her niece in martyrdom. Similarly, King Etherius, who was Ursula’s fiancé, leaves his

kingdom to join Ursula, along with his own mother.130 In Elisabeth’s visions, the secular and

religious realms blur as both kings and popes abandon their thrones to suffer martyrdom by

Ursula’s side. In the ideal Christian society, this service to God above all else is

fundamental.

Finally, it is noteworthy that Elisabeth’s Book of Revelations contains numerous

instances where God directly intervenes in the lives of His chosen through the sending of

visions. The power of God transcends time and space here, tying Elisabeth, herself a

visionary receiving a revelation, to the saints who experienced revelations foretelling their

martyrdom. First of all, Ursula herself receives a revelation from God which initiates the

129 Elisabeth, The Complete Works, 224 130 Ibid., 220 Deumens 37

entire pilgrimage ending in the martyrdom of the eleven thousand virgins. When the troop is

welcomed to Rome by Pope Cyriacus, “it was revealed to him by the Lord that he would

abandon the apostolic throne and go with us and together with us receive the palm of martyrdom.”131 King Etherius receives a similar divine command.132 In all, six of the saints

receive visions foretelling their martyrdom in this account. Not only is God gracing the

martyrs of the past with revelation, but He also sends instruction to the present through

Elisabeth. Elisabeth depicts God as near at hand and directly involved in the lives of His

chosen people, the one who sends His chosen to die for our salvation just as He sent His Son.

In The Book of Revelations, Elisabeth creates around Ursula a perfect ecclesiastical

community where family bonds augment spiritual commitment, clerical leadership is pure

and steadfast, the secular authorities are allied with the religious, and God directly intervenes

in the lives of His chosen.133 This story must have resonated strongly with a twelfth century

audience, especially in Cologne. That city had survived numerous clashes between church

and secular authorites, most notably the revolt of the merchants against Archbishop Anno II

in 1074 and the brief civil war between Henry IV and his son, backed by the pope, which had

threatened Cologne in particular.134 What the cult of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, newly

transformed by the visions of Elisabeth, offered to Cologne was an ideal, a goal toward

which the great city could aspire.

131 Elisabeth, The Complete Works,217 132 Ibid, 220 133 In her preface to the translated works, Barbara Newman says of The Book of Revelations: “More strikingly, [Elisabeth] transforms a legend about a vast Amazonian army – for the martyrs were supposed to be virgins who had all renounced family, fled marriage, and eschewed the company of men – into a vision of harmonious friendship and collaboration between the sexes.”(xvi) 134 See chapter two, above; Bock ,The Museum of the City of Cologne; Fuhrmann, Germany in the High Middle Ages Deumens 38

CONCLUSIONS

And so that the people of the blessed city of Cologne – made more blessed by this

incomparable treasure – might know how much honour and reverence they forever owed

to the virgins’ most sacred ashes, they realized when they gained their liberation how

precious was the death of the virgins in the sight of the Lord [cf.Ps. 115:5]. The people

learned how magnificently the blessed virgins were living in the council of the saints,

they whose bodies – some lying unclothed – had been so potent.135

With the events of the twelfth century—the Regnante domino, the exhumation of the relics, and The Book of Revelations—the cult of the Eleven Thousand Virgins expanded across Europe from England to Italy, and maintained its widespread popularity for centuries.136 A hundred years after the visions of Elisabeth von Schönau, the legend of

Ursula was reprinted in Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, a very popular and widely published collection of saint’s lives. The story had not changed from Elisabeth’s adaptation of the Regnante domino.137 Even in the late fifteenth century, Ursula and her companions continued to be important members of the catholic liturgy. The legend was again republished in 1485 in an English translation, and the great Italian explorer Christopher Columbus named

135 The Passion of Saint Ursula [Regnante domino, 30. 136 See Huffman, Family, Commerce, and Religion in London and Cologne and Montgomery, St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne 137 Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, trans. Ganger Ryan and Helmut Ripperger (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., Inc., 1941) Deumens 39

the Virgin Islands after them, since it seemed to him as though there were that many island

floating in the ocean.138

However, the heart of the cult was always Cologne. That city was the place where the virgins had been martyred, the birthplace of the cult, and the source of its religious relics.

In all other parts of Europe, they were known as the Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne,

and the city became famous as “the greatest city . . . of all of Germany . . . replete with the patronage of saints.”139 In many ways, the cult was also the heart of Cologne: the

relationship between the holy virgins and the city formed an important part of Cologne’s

identity. A thriving economic center, home to merchants so wealthy and competitive they

were banned from Italian markets and the minters of the most stable currency in Germany,

Cologne commanded amazing material wealth, and yet their greatest treasures were their patron saints. Already one of the strongest archbishoprics in the Holy Roman Empire,

Cologne became one of the most important centers of Catholic religion in Europe, comparable to Rome and Jerusalem, due to its relationship with the Eleven Thousand

Virgins. The city remained a “Catholic metropolis” despite the violent upheavals of the

Reformation because of the strength of the cult of saints.140 Throughout the Middle Ages,

but especially in the twelfth century, city and cult developed together, each being

transformed by changes in the other.

In 1970, Rome removed St. Ursula from the liturgical calendar because the story of

eleven thousand British noblewomen martyred by Huns outside Cologne was deemed highly

138 Karen A. Winstead, Chaste passions: medieval English virgin martyr legends (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000) 164-169 and Montgomery, 40-41 139 William of Malmesbury, quoted in Huffman, Familiy, Commerce and Religion in London and Cologne, 10. Huffman gives the original Latin in footnote 11 on that page (the translation is mine): “Colonia est civitas maxima, totius Germaniae metropolis, conferta mercimoniis, referta sanctorum patrociniis.” 140 Louthan, “Imagining Christian origins: Catholic visions of a holy past in central Europe,” 7. Deumens 40

improbable.141 Today, the Saint Ursula church looks very small in the Cologne skyline from

the bell tower of the Dom, and relatively few visitors are drawn inside the church. However,

the city’s flag still flies the eleven marks for each thousand virgins, and every October the

city celebrates their patron saints. The Eleven Thousand Virgins remain an important facet

of the city’s catholic identity.

141 St. Ursula-Cologne, Schnell Art Guide, 6 Deumens 41

APPENDIX: IMAGES

Image 1: “Trade Routes, Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries,” from Brian Tierney and Sidney Painter, Western Europe in the Middle Ages 300-1475, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970)

Image 2: “The Expansion of Cologne,” from Paul Strait, Cologne in the Twelfth Century, (Gainesville: University Presses of Florida, 1974), 48.

Deumens 42

Image 3: The Golden Chamber, St. Ursula Church, Cologne Germany. Photo taken by Eleanor Deumens, July 2010.

Image 4: Altar, St. Ursula Church, Cologne, Germany. Photo taken by Eleanor Deumens, July 2010.

Deumens 43

Image 5: Reliquary busts overlooking the nave, St. Ursula Church, Cologne, Germany. Photo taken by Eleanor Deumens, July 2010.

Image 6: Small Ursula Cycle, unknown German master, 1450-1560, Cologne, Wallraf- Richartz Museum. Photo taken by Eleanor Deumens, July 2010.

Deumens 44

Image 7: Municipal crest, sixteenth century, Stadtmuseum, Cologne, Germany. Photo taken by Eleanor Deumens, July 2010.

Deumens 45

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