De morte fratris Helmerici magistri et XL fratrum et plurium Cristianorum.
The Nattangian Raid on Kolm
Henry of Moha, captain of the Nattangians, invades Kolm, plunders, burns, and sheds blood across the Christian land.
In the same year, Henry of Moha, captain of the Nattangians, invaded the land of Kolm with a strong army. Besides carrying off a great number of people and an inestimable amount of other plunder, he burned all the buildings located outside the fortifications and stained that Christian land with blood.
The Master Pursues the Enemy
Brother Helmericus the Master gathers his army and boldly pursues the Prussians to Lubovia, drawing up for battle.
When Brother Helmericus the Master learned of this, he gathered the full strength of his army and pursued them as far as the land of Lubovia. Having drawn up his battle line, he attacked them manfully.
The Battle and the Fall of the Master
At Lubovia the Prussians rally, and in a prolonged battle the Master, the Marshal, and forty brothers are slain by God's inscrutable judgment.
The Prussians, however, entrenched behind their earthworks, resisted bravely at first, but then they fled, and the Christians who pursued them were scattered. Although more of the Prussians would have fallen in this flight, when they saw only a few men gathered around the standard, they rallied and returned to their entrenchments. There they began a new battle, which lasted a long time, and in the end — the Lord permitting, whose judgments are incomprehensible — they killed the Master and Brother Theodoricus the Marshal, along with forty brothers.
The Great Slaughter of the Faithful
The Christians are nearly annihilated, a slaughter deemed worse than Kuron because almost all the chosen perished.
They killed the brothers and the entire army of the Christians, and so great a slaughter was visited upon the people of God that it was thought to be greater than the one that had preceded it in the battle of Kuron — because, although not so many were killed here as there, nevertheless almost all the chosen ones were destroyed.
The Hermit's Vision of Martyrdom
A hermit later sees burning candles at the battlefield, confirming that the slain have received the crown of martyrdom.
At the site of this battle, a certain hermit who lived there afterward saw, on many occasions at night, burning candles — which made it all the more clear that those slain there had already obtained the crown of martyrdom from the King of martyrs.
Read the original Latin
Eodem anno Henricus Monte capitaneus Nattangorum cum valido exercitu intravit terram Colmensem, et preter populum multum et aliarum rerum predam inestimabilem, quam secum duxit, omnia edificia extra municiones sita combussit, et terram illam Cristianorum sanguine rubricavit. Quod cum ad aures fratris Helmerici magistri deveniret, convocavit omnem virtutem exercitus sui, et secutus est eos usque ad terram Lubovie, et ordinato exercitu suo ad prelium, eos viriliter est aggressus. Prutheni autem vallati indaginibus fortiter in primo restiterunt, sed tanclem fugerunt, et Cristiani sequentes eos dispersi fuerunt, et licet in hac fuga plures occidissent, tarnen Prutheni, cum viderent paucos viros circa vexillum, coadunati redierunt ad indagines, et incipientes novum bellum, quod diu duravit, ultimo permittente domino, cujus incomprehensibilia sunt judicia, magistrum et fratrem Theodoricum marscalcum et xl. fratres et totum exercitum Cristianorum interfecerunt, factaque fuit tanta plaga in populo dei, ut estimaretur major, quam illa, que precessit in conflictu Curoniensi, quia licet hic tot non essent occisi sicut ibi, tarnen quasi omnes electi et sunt extincti. In hoc loco certaminis postea quidam heremita habitans vidit noctis tempore candelas ardentes pluribus vicibus, que interfectos ibi jam coronam martirii apud regem martirum adeptos essea manifestius declarabant.
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