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Counter-Reformation Sanctity: The Bollandists' Vita of Blessed Hemma of Gurk
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 February 2009
Extract
It is now commonplace for historians of religion to treat the creation of saints as a political process that included such issues as doctrinal orthodoxy, church authority and popular practices and beliefs. The early twentieth-century Bollandist scholar of sanctity, Hippolyte Delehaye sj, touched on these when he considered the problems facing the critical, but devout, hagiographer in his history, The work of the Bollandists:
To question the lawfulness of the cult of a saint, or to raise doubts as to the authenticity of his relics, were issues which could not in most cases remain theoretical, but which demanded practical measures, and in the application of these more than usual tact was required. How was it to be made clear to the faithful that the authority of the Church was not responsible for certain vagaries? How were devotions which had taken root in the heart of the people to be suppressed without causing serious disturbances? On the other hand how were they to be upheld, in the face of the conviction that they were without foundation?… Of course the faithful have never been taught that the lives of the saints are to be believed in the same measure as the Gospel, but it is a fact that they incline to this belief. Hence was it not dangerous, from the standpoint of faith, to destroy certain pious illusions?
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References
1 Delehaye, Hippolyte sj, The work of the Bollandists through three centuries, 1615–1915, Princeton, NJ 1922, 120Google Scholar.
2 Burke, Peter, ‘How to be a counter-reformation saint’, in von Greyerz, Kaspar (ed.), Religion and society in early modern Europe, 1500–1800, London 1984, 45–55 at pp. 45, 49, 50Google Scholar.
3 Within the sphere of religious practice the neat distinction between elite and popular breaks down, since the hierarchy of the Catholic Church was not all-encompassing, and local clergy may often have seen themselves at least in competition with Rome, if not at times in direct opposition to it. Similarly, a local populace consisting of both highly literate (elite?) and illiterate (popular?) people contributed in innumerable ways to religious practice and may have either supported reform (whether of local or central origin) or resisted it. For a discussion of the literature on popular culture, see Davis, Natalie Zemon, ‘From “popular religion” to religious cultures’, in Ozment, Steven (ed.), Reformation Europe: a guide to research, St Louis 1982, 321–41Google Scholar. An excellent discussion of religious practice and the biased tendency of scholars to treat elite religion as contemplative and popular religion as behaviouristic is Richard Trexler's, ‘Reverence and profanity in the study of early modern religion’, in von Greyerz, , Religion and society, 246–52Google Scholar.
4 Delehaye, Work of the Bollandists, passim, which also provides a good general introduction to this topic. In The legends of the saints, 4th edn, trans. Attwater, Donald, New York 1962Google Scholar, Delehaye explains his own ‘scientific hagiography’. See also Knowles's, David brief account, ‘The Bollandists’, in his Great historical enterprises: problems in monastic history, London 1963, 1–32Google Scholar; Palmieri's, Aurelio ‘The Bollandists’, Catholic Historical Review new ser. iii (1923), 341–57Google Scholar, and ‘The Bollandists: the period of trial’, ibid. iv (1924), 517–29.
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6 ‘Zum ersten Male wurde dort in grossen Umfange der Versuch gemacht, die Quellenautoren systematisch nach Alter und Glaubwürdigkeit zu ordnen’: Fueter, E., Geschichte der0 neueren Historiographie, Munich 1911, 325Google Scholar, as quoted in Delehaye, , Work of the Bollandists, 30Google Scholar(incorrectly cited as 328).
8 Idem, Work of the Bollandists, 117–75; Palmieri, ‘The Bollandists: the period of trial’, where the tensions between the Bollandists and their detractors are outlined.
9 The term is borrowed from Pierre Delooz. See my discussion of his work below.
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15 Wonisch, Othmar, ‘Förderung des Hemmakultes durch das Stift St. Lambrecht’, Carinthia I cli (1961), 740–71Google Scholar, for an account of the first publication of Hemma's Vita in the 1709 edition of the Acta sanctorum, June, v. 499ff. Citations in this article refer to the Acta sanctorum, 3rd edn, 06, vii, Paris 1867, 456–85Google Scholar (hereinafter cited as AASS).
16 I use the term ‘saint’ freely when referring to Hemma throughout this article, although the Church did not officially canonise her until 1938. The Catholic hierarchy never suppressed or discouraged her veneration locally. On this see Löw, Josef CCSR, S. Hemma-Büchlein, Klagenfurt 1931, esp. pp. 78–83Google Scholar. On her eventual canonisation, see Rumpler, Helmut, ‘Die Heiligerklärung Hemmas 1938, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des politischen Umfeldes’, in Hemma von Gurk: Ausstellung auf Schloss Strassburg/Kärnten 14. Mai bis 26. Oktober 1988, Klagenfurt 1988, 203–19Google Scholar (a collection of articles published in conjunction with the 1988 Carinthian provincial exhibition).
17 Monumenta historica ducatus Carinthiae, ed. von Jaksch, August, I: Die Gurker Geschichtsquellen, 864–1232, Klagenfurt 1896Google Scholar (hereinafter cited as MHDC). Jaksch's comments are important because some documents reproduced are forgeries, but new research contends that some of his specific conclusions about Hemma's relations (but not the forgeries) are erroneous. I do not believe these issues affect my own conclusions but tend to rely upon the more recent works: Dopsch, Heinz, ‘Hemma von Gurk – Eine Stifterin zwischen Legende und Wirklichkeit’, in Hemma von Gurk, 11–23Google Scholar; and ‘Die Stifterfamilie des Klosters Gurk und ihre Verwandtschaft’, Carinthia I clxi (1971), 95–123Google Scholar; Leitner, Friedrich W., ‘Zur Edition der Gurker Geschichtsquellen’, in Hemma von Gurk, 49–52Google Scholar.
18 Several short accounts of Hemma's life and cult exist, most notably, Butler, Alban, The lives of the saints, ed. Thurston, Herbert sj and Leeson, Norah, New York n.d., 286–7Google Scholar; Gould, S. Baring, Lives of the saints, Edinburgh 1914, 461Google Scholar; Delaney, John S., Dictionary of saints, Garden City, NY 1980, 196–7Google Scholar; von Doren, Rambaut, ‘Emma’, Bibliotheca sanctorum, Rome 1961, iv, cols 1197–9Google Scholar; Löw, Giuseppe [Josef], ‘Emma’, Enciclopedia cattolica, Vatican City n.d., v. 310–11Google Scholar. Both Werner, F., ‘Hemma’, in Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, ed. Braunfels, Wolfgang, Rome 1974, vi. 494–5Google Scholar, and Braun, Joseph, ‘Hemma' (29. Juni)’, Tracht und Attribute der Heiligen in der deutschen Kunst, Stuttgart 1943, cols 768–9Google Scholar, provide short lists of graphic representations of Hemma. Longer accounts in German (based to a large part on AASS) include Löw, S. Hemma-Büchlein; Krause, Adalbert osb, St. Hemma, Mödling-bei-Wien 1948Google Scholar; Graber, Georg, ‘St. Hemma’, in Sagen aus Kärnten, Leipzig 1927, 343–51Google Scholar; and the fictionalised work by Viesèr, Dolores (Aichbichler), Hemma von Gurk, 2nd edn, Klagenfurt 1979Google Scholar. There are numerous academic works as well. Hemma von Gurk is an exhaustive guide (see n. 16).
19 It must be emphasised that Jäger was not a Jesuit Bollandist but a Benedictine; Papebroch, however, functioned as theprimus inter pares of the order: Wonisch, ‘Förderung des Hemmakultes’, passim.
20 AASS, ‘Commentarius praevius’, 456–7Google Scholar.
21 AASS, 457–61. The ‘Legenda’ are printed in three sections entitled ‘Acta’, ‘Summa vitae’ and ‘Miracula’. They consist of nine readings for matins, another version of which is bound with a fourteenth-century office used by the cathedral canons (Kärntner Landesarchiv, GV Hs 1/20, fos 17–29), and a third with the record of the fifteenth-century canonisation process (see n. 41 below). For a discussion of the early manuscript sources and sacerdotal uses of the life and legends of Hemma, see Ogris, Alfred, ‘Zur Überlieferung der hl. Hemma in den handschriftlichen Quellen’, 82–91Google Scholar, and Prassl, Franz Karl, ‘Die hl. Hemma in Messe und Stundengebet’, 92–100Google Scholar, in Hemma von Gurk.
22 AASS, 461–3; original in Archiv des Gurker Domkapitels (Kapitelarchiv), A7. For a discussion of the process see Tropper, Christine, ‘Das Verfahren zur Heiligsprechung Hemmas von Gurk in der zweiten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts’, 189–202Google Scholar, and Tropper, Peter G., ‘Wie Hemma von Gurk zur Heiligen wurde – Etappen eines Kanonisations-prozesses’, 173–88Google Scholar, in Hemma von Gurk.
23 AASS, 463–72. The original document, cited as ‘Res gestae Beatae Hemmae viduae’ (1632) by Löw, , Hemma-Büchlein, 158Google Scholar, is now lost. A 1639 manuscript, ‘Vita S. Hemmae’ (Kärntner Landesarchiv, GV Hs 10/7), partly translated into German, is probably based on Waldner's Vita. Ogris, , ‘Zur Überlieferung der hl. Hemma in den handschriftlichen Quellen’, 88Google Scholar.
24 AASS, 472–80. See my discussion of these ‘selections’ below.
25 Under the titles ‘De Ven. Beatrice Carinthiae Ducissa, B. Hemmae, si non came, moribus sorore’, and ‘De Carthusia Seizensi in Stiria, B. Hemmae ut Fundatrici perperam adscripta’: AASS, 481–5.
26 Ibid. 464, para. 4.
27 Ibid. paras 4–6; 458, para. 6.
28 Ibid. 465, paras 7–8; 458, para. 6.
29 Ibid. para. 9.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid. paras 10–11.
32 Ibid. para. 12.
33 Ibid. 465–6, paras 13–16.
34 Ibid. 466–7, paras 17–23; 458–9, paras 7–8.
35 Ibid. 466, para. 19. Here the legend echoes stereotyped myths of the founding of Greek or Roman cities.
36 Ibid. 467, para. 20.
37 Ibid. paras 21–2.
38 Ibid. paras 23–4; 459, paras 9–10.
39 Ibid. 458, para. 7; references to Hemma, as ‘fundatrix’ at pp. 463–4Google Scholar, paras 1–2.
40 Ibid. 495–6, paras 11–14.
41 Ibid. 459–61, paras 11–23 (fifteenth-century Vita); 461–3, paras 24–42 (accounts from canonisation appended to Vita); 469–72, paras 28–64 (Waldner's Vita and subsequent reports appended to it).
42 Ibid. 467–8, paras 25–7.
43 Fueter, Geschichte der neueren Historiographie, as quoted by Delehaye, , Work of the Bollandists, 30Google Scholar. See n. 6 above.
44 ‘Vita hujus nostrae Hemmae, antiquitus scripta nulla fuit’: AASS, 456, para. 3.
45 ‘I. Affinitas ejus cum S. Henrico Imp. et Gurcensis Abbatiae erectio ac donatio’: ibid. 472–3; ‘I. (sic) Cujus Instituti, Canonicine an Benedictini fuerit Parthenon B. Hemmae; eique subservientes, Clerici an Monachi: et quomodo his inducta Regularitas Augustiniana hactenus perseveret’: ibid. 473–5; ‘III. Quomodo et quando Gurcensis Ecclesia Episcopalis facta sit’: ibid. 475–6; ‘IV. Series Episcoporum Gurcensium usque ad finem seculi XVII’: ibid. 476–7; ‘V. Cultus B. Hemmae, sub Episcopis et Canonicis insigniter auctus’: ibid. 477–9; ‘VI. Postulata a Pontifice Canonizatione, formatur ad earn Processus’: ibid. 479–80.
46 Ibid. 458, para. 6; 464–5, paras 4–8.
47 Ibid. 458, para. 7.
48 Ibid. 463–4, paras 1–2.
49 See n. 41 above.
50 ‘Wilhelmo Comiti; nee non et Dominae Hemmae matri suae, nepti autem nostrae’: AASS, 472, para. 1; cf. MHDC, doc. 13, a similar twelfth-century forgery.
51 ‘Alterius Hemmae’: AASS, 472, para. 2.
52 ‘Ex alterutro nata Hemma sit, ejus de qua agimus socrus; itaque correctus maneat error Actorum recentiorum, duas Hemmas num. 4 confundentium. Nihilo facilius definiverim, utrius Hemmae crater ille sit, qui inter cimelia Gurcensis Ecclesiae asservatur, his litteris, per circumferentiam limbi, auro inscriptus. Plus omni gemma tuus hie crater nitet, Hemma’: ibid. 472–3, para. 2.
53 Ibid. 473, paras 3–4 (Balduin's consecration), and 473, paras 4[sic]–6 (Hemma's deed); these are actually twelfth-century forgeries printed in MHDC, docs 1711, 18.
54 ‘Adeoque nihil obest praetensae Gurcensium traditioni, B. Hemmam adscribentium Canonico Ordini’: AASS 474, para. 9.
55 Ibid. 473–5, paras 7–16. This section is mostly commentary, discussing the endowment in paras 7–9, and then turning to the reform of the canons.
56 Ibid. 475, para. 19.
57 Ibid.
58 Ibid. 475–6, paras 20–4.
59 Ibid. 477–8, para. 27. On Hemma's translation and its importance to the cult of the saint, see Löw, , S. Hemma-Büchlein, 78–80Google Scholar.
60 Ibid. 478, paras 28–30.
61 Ibid. para. 31. See the discussion of liturgical sources by Prassl, , ‘Die hl. Hemma in Messe und Stundengebet’, in Hemma von Gurk, 92–107Google Scholar.
62 AASS, 478–9, paras 32–3. See also Obersteiner, Jakob, Die Bischöfe von Gurk (1072–1822), Klagenfurt 1969, 171Google Scholar.
63 AASS, 479, para. 34. See also Meir, Alice, ‘Das Gurker Domkapitel und die Kontinuität der Hemma-Verehrung’, in Hemma von Gurk, 73–81Google Scholar.
64 AASS, 479–80, paras 35–7. For a discussion of the letters see Tropper, Christine, ‘Das Verfahren zur Heiligsprechung Hemmas von Gurk in der zweiten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts’, in Hemma von Gurk, 189–202Google Scholar.
65 AASS, 480, para. 38. See also Ed. von Pettenegg, G. Grafen, ‘Das angebliche Bild der seligen Hemma’, Carinthia I cvii (1917), 31Google Scholar.
66 Ibid. 31–2.
67 AASS, 480, para. 39.
68 Ibid. para. 40.
69 Ibid. 481–5, paras 41–60.
70 Note the title of the first appendix, ‘De Ven. Beatrice Carinthiae Ducisse, B. Hemmae, si non came, moribus sorore’, and the line from the second, ‘sitque cum Gurcensi fundatrice confusa, licet Ottocharis tribus, talis Hemma ignota sit’: ibid. 481, paras 41, 44.
71 For a detailed discussion of the forgeries see Jaksch's, discussion in MHDC, 1–35Google Scholar and his glosses on each document. It must be made clear that of the sources cited below documents 5, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19 and 28 are forgeries dating from the period between 1170 and 1178. Jaksch argues in his glosses, however, that much of the material is genuine. See n. 17 above.
72 Obersteiner, , Die Bischöfe von Gurk, 12 n. 13Google Scholar; MHDC, 1–2, docs 3–6, 8, 9, 12, 14 and 15 establish the holdings of both Hemma and her husband; cf. Dopsch, ‘Stifterfamilie des Klosters Gurk’, and ‘Hemma von Gurk’.
73 MHDC, 1 and docs 9, 12, 13 and 58; cf. Dopsch, ‘Stifterfamilie des Klosters Gurk’, and ‘Hemma von Gurk’, which discuss Hemma's genealogy in detail. On iconographic depictions of the pair see Hartwagner, Siegfried, Der Dom zu Gurk, Klagenfurt 1963Google Scholar; Werner, F., ‘Hemma’, in Braunfels, , Lexikon der christlicher Ikonographie, vi. 494–5Google Scholar; and the ‘Katalogteil’, in Hemma von Gurk, 325–522.
74 Dopsch, , ‘Hemma von Gurk’, 14–15Google Scholar.
75 Hantsch, Hugo, Die Geschichte Österreichs, Graz 1959, i. 61Google Scholar; Brunner, Sebastian, Ein Benediktinerbuch, Würzburg n.d., 43Google Scholar; MHDC, 2. On Hemma's death see ibid. 26, 27, as well as doc. 19.
76 Obersteïner, , Die Bischöfe von Gurk, 12–13Google Scholar; MHDC, docs 16, 17, 28; AASS, 473, 475–6.
77 An element of uncertainty on this question still remains, because of imprecise and contradictory usage in contemporary documents. Nonnberg is sometimes referred to as a Benedictine house in imperial documents but other evidence may suggest that it was not initially so and may very well have been established as a house for the Canons Regular or Augustinian nuns. See the work of Bracher, Karl, Beiträge zur mittelalterlichen Geschichte des Stiftes Göss, Graz 1954, 54ffGoogle Scholar.
78 Hartwagner, , Der Dom zu Gruk, 10–11Google Scholar; MHDC, doc. 286.
79 Ibid. doc. 512, is the first such account. It is printed in AASS, 460–1, paras 18–23.
80 See Obersteiner, , Die Bischöfe von Gurk, 11–15Google Scholar; MHDC, 1–35.
81 Ibid. docs 27, 30.
82 Ibid. docs 32–4.
83 Obersteiner, , Die Bischöfe von Gurk, 12, 15Google Scholar; MHDC, docs 1, 32.
84 Ibid. docs 27, 30.
85 Ibid. 3.
86 Bracher, , Beiträge zur mittelalterlichen Geschichte des Stiftes Göss, 44–57Google Scholar; Obersteiner, , Die Bischöfe von Gurk, 12–13Google Scholar.
87 MHDC, 13–23.
88 Ibid. docs 5, 12–13, 16–17, 19, 28, and 31 are involved in Conrad's falsifications.
89 See Jaksch's discussion, ibid. 13–17.
90 Ibid. 13.
91 ‘Hemme que primo fundamentum sedis ecclesie posuit’: ibid. doc. 270.
92 Ibid. docs 18, 29 and 33.
93 Ibid. doc. 18; repr. in AASS, 473, para. 4.
94 MHDC, 26–7.
95 Ibid. 24.
96 Ibid. 26–7.
97 Werner, , ‘Hemma’, in Braunfels, , Lexikon der christlicher lkonographie, vi. 494–5Google Scholar; Hartwagner, , Der Dom zu Gurk, plates 31, 55, 85–6, 98, 124–5, 154–65Google Scholar.
98 L'Estocq, H. ‘Die Hemmaverehrung in Unterkärnten’, Carinthia I cxx (1930), 193–4Google Scholar, and ‘Beiträge zur Geschichte der Hemmaverehrung in Kärnten’, Carinthia I cxxiii (1933), 210–11Google Scholar.
99 See Pettenegg's detailed discussion of this phenomenon in ‘Das angebliche Bild der seligen Hemma’, 2–43, with 9 plates.
100 See Wonisch, , ‘Förderung des Hemmakultes’, 740–9Google Scholar.
101 ‘Pour une étude sociologique de la sainteté canonisée dans l'Eglise catholique’, Archives de Sociologie des Religions xii (1962), 17–43Google Scholar, has been published in an English translation as ‘Towards a sociological study of canonized sainthood in the Catholic Church’, trans. Hodgkin, Jane, in Wilson, , Saints and their Cults, 189–216Google Scholar. Quotations and citations are from the English and the emphasis is in the original. See also his longer work, Sociologie et canonisations.
102 Delooz, , ‘Towards a sociological study’, 194Google Scholar (emphasis in original).
103 Ibid. 195 (emphasis in original).
104 Ibid. 199 (emphasis in original).
105 Ibid. 201 (emphasis in original). This theme is the ‘real’ topic of Sociologie el canonisations – see n. 11 above.
106 Or real and constructed miracles, for that matter. See Delooz, , ‘Towards a sociological study’, 207–12Google Scholar.
107 AASS, 456, paras 1, 2: ‘quos oportet deceptos dicere similitudine nominis’ or ‘Similis confusio ex nominis’.
108 Ibid.: ‘Vita hujus nostrae Hemmae, antiquitus scripta nulla fuit.’
109 ‘Fundatrix Ecclesiase Gurcensis’: ibid. 456–7, paras 1, 3, 4–6.
110 See Wonisch's discussion of Hemma's promotion by the monastery of St Lambrecht in ‘Förderung des Hemmakultes’, 749–51. The results of the communications are reprinted in AASS, 473–80, paras 3–40. The depictions are not reproduced, but detailed descriptions are.
111 This goal is treated candidly by authors who study the Bollandists. See, for instance, Delehaye, Work of the Bollandists, passim; Knowles, , Great historical enterprises, 1–32Google Scholar. On Hemma specifically, see Wonisch, ‘Förderung des Hemmakultes’, passim.