De fratre Conrado quondam lantgravio Thuringie magistro generali v ordinis.
The Penitent Landgrave
Brother Conrad, formerly landgrave of Thuringia and fifth master general of the Teutonic Order, performed a striking public penance—going barefoot and bareheaded through the city he had conquered, offering himself to be struck by any who wished—before entering religious life.
The Teutonic house. Brother Conrad, formerly landgrave of Thuringia, fifth master general of the Teutonic Order, died on the ninth of the kalends of August and was buried — [the text is corrupt at this point] — he powerfully conquered the secular city of Writislar. For this deed, when he wished to enter religious life, he grieved and humbled himself in satisfaction for this kind of fault, so that he went with bare feet and bare head before a procession in the said city, and placed himself before the doors of the church, holding out the rod he carried in his hand to the people, so that anyone might strike him at will. No one, however, touched him except one old woman, who gave him several blows. This brother Conrad was converted in this way to the Order of the Teutonic house.
The Encounter with the Prostitute
At his castle Deneburg, Conrad encountered a prostitute who suffered in cold and wet, and he rebuked her for choosing sin over eternal joy, yet she replied that poverty left her no other means of survival.
One day, fleeing the throng of people and the clamor of legal disputes, he withdrew with Hartmann of Ilelderung and Theodoric of Gruning and a few members of his household to his castle Deneburg, where, as they sat, a certain prostitute came up, and the landgrave addressed her, saying, 'Where do you come from?' She answered: 'I sat in the wet and cold briar all day.' To her he said: 'You, wretched woman, suffer more for the punishment of hell than another does for the joy of eternity.' But she answered: 'My lord, reverend sir, I do not know another way by which I can earn my living.'
Compunction and the Call to Religious Life
Moved by the prostitute's tears and her willingness to live chastely if provided for, Conrad gave her lifelong support, then turned his rebuke inward, recognizing his own greater sinfulness; after a sleepless night of compunction, he and companions went barefoot to seek God's counsel, and upon divine inspiration confessed to the pope, who enjoined him to take the Teutonic habit.
To whom the landgrave said: "Would you want to live chastely, if you had the necessities of life?" When she heard this, she sighed, groaned, and said with tears: "Truly so, my lord." So the landgrave, pitying the misery of her soul, assigned her fixed revenues by which she ought to be sustained for as long as she lived. After this was done, he himself kept all these words of rebuke with which he had rebuked her, turning them over in his heart, thinking that they had been more necessary for himself than for her. She, for her part, had sinned under the pressing necessity of poverty; he, delighting in an abundance of things, had rashly provoked God against himself by his sins. And so, burdened by this, he spent the whole night sleepless. When in the morning he had learned that Hartmann and Theodoric, mentioned before, were occupied with a similar thought, he went with them, barefoot and without linen garments, to the chapel of blessed Nicholas in Gladbach, seeking there the counsel of God in this matter. There it was divinely inspired in him that he, with a few from his household, should approach the lord pope, and he confessed to him all his sins. The pope enjoined on him that he should take up the habit of the Order of the House of Teutonicorum — but he refused, and clinging to his holy purpose, he related to his secretaries what had been done, asking that for the reverence of God and of his said order they should take it up.
The Knight's Raid, Bereavement, and Reconciliation
While Conrad's companions agreed to enter the Order at his prayer, a knight raided Conrad's lands and, upon learning his wife had died in childbirth, interpreted it as divine punishment for obstructing his lord's holy purpose; he returned the spoils, sought forgiveness, and was joyfully embraced by Conrad, who shared his own resolve to enter the Teutonic Order.
They all agreed to his request, moved by his prayers. Meanwhile, while this was happening, a knight with many men-at-arms raided the land of the aforementioned landgrave in a hostile manner, and while he was on his way back, a servant from his castle met him, announcing that his wife had been in danger of childbirth at that very hour and had died along with a stillborn boy. When he heard this, the knight, shaken, reflected that God had struck him in this way because, through this kind of plundering, he had chosen to hinder the holy purpose of his lord the landgrave. Therefore, after returning the spoils to those from whom he had taken them, he went to his house, if it was indeed his own, seeking forgiveness for the wrong he had committed. To him the landgrave said: 'How dare you appear in my sight?' But the other, trusting, as he said, in the usual kindness of your grace, came to you, because he had resolved firmly in his heart to enter the Teutonic Order just as you had. At these words the landgrave rejoiced so much that, rushing into his arms with joy, he forgave him every offense.
The Pentecost at Marienburg and the Gift of Discernment
At Marienburg, Conrad and many knights were invested into the Teutonic Order, and as the priest invoked the Holy Spirit, a visible flame descended upon them; Conrad was thereafter so enlightened by the Spirit that he could discern hidden sins, as when he detected two fornicators brought to test him and rejoiced upon their true repentance that they had become sons of God.
After this had been done, the aforementioned knight, together with Hermann and Theoderic already named and with many other knights and nobles, came to the brothers of the Teutonic house at Marienburg in November, where, when they were to be invested and were lying prostrate before the altar as is the custom, the priest, after other prayers, began to sing in a loud voice: 'Alleluia, come, Holy Spirit.' And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a flame of fire upon them, and the more each of them was kindled with the love of God, the greater the aforementioned flame appeared in the sight of all who stood by.✦ This brother Conrad, the landgrave and master, was so deeply enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit that he knew the hidden deeds of men; because of this, he couldn't bear to have anyone guilty of the vice of fornication around him.12 A certain abbot, learning of this, wanted to test whether the matter truly stood that way; and so, bringing with him two young men who were fornicators, he approached the master, who, the moment he saw the servants, ordered them to leave.3 But while the servants were returning, having been sent ahead with true contrition and confession, the master, looking at them, said: 'O good Jesus, how merciful and good you are! These two servants were previously sons of the devil; now they are sons of God.'✦45
Read the original Latin
domus Theutonice. el ^412W Frater Conradus, lantgravius quondam Thuringie, magister V generalis or dinis domus Theutonicorumr obiit ix kalendas Augusti et sepultus est Marc September^ur^S' ^lirn at^iuc essef secularis civitatem Vritslariam potenter expugnavit, pro quo, dum religionem vellet ingredi, doluit et humiliavit se pro hujusmodi delicti satisfactione sic, quod nudis pedibus et capite ante processionem in dicta civitate iret, et posuit se ante fores ecclesie, exhibens virgam, quam manu gestabat, populo, ut quilibet eum ad placitum verberaret. Nullus tarnen eum tetigit preter unam vetulam, que plures plagas dedit ei. Iste frater Conra dus per hunc moclum conversus fuit ad ordinem domus Theutonicorum. Quadam ' die fugiens frequenciam populi et strepitumk causarum cum Hartmanno de Ilelderunge et Theodorico de Gruninge" et paucis de familia sua secessit ad castrum suum Deneburgk"3, ubi dum consederent, supervenit quedam meretrix, quam alloquens lantgravius ait: unde venis? Que respondit: sedi in rubeto madida et frigida per diem. Ad quam ille: tu misera plus pateris pro penis inferni, quam alius pro gaudio eterno. At illa respondit: domine reverende", nescio alium modum, per quem possim acquirere victum meum.
Cui lantgra vius: veiles vivere caste, si haberes necessaria vite? Quo audito illa suspirans ingemuit et cum lacrimis ait: ita verob, domine. Unde lantgravius miserans miseriam anime ipsius constituit ei certos reditus, quibus deberet, quamdiu viveret, sustentari. Quo facto ipse omnia verba hecc increpacionis, quibus ipsamd corripuit, conservabat, conferens ea in corde suo, cogitans, quod magis sibi ipsi fuissent necessaria quam illi. Illa enim necessitate paupertatis urgente peccavit, ipse ex rerum affluencia delectatus deum peccatis suis contra se temere provocavit, et sic occupatus totam noctem duxit insompnem. Mane facto dum Hartmannum etTheodoricum predictos didicisset cogitacione simili occupatos, ivit cum eis nudis pedibus et sine lineis ad capellam beati Nicolai in Gladbach, requirens ibi dei Consilium in hoc casu. Ubi ei divinitus fuit inspiratum, quod ipse cum paucis de familia sua accessit ad dominum papamf, et confessus fuit ei omnia peccata sua. Qui papas injunxit ei, ut susciperet ordinis domus Theutonice habitumh respuit, et sancto proposito inherens secretariis suis, quod gestum fuerat, enarravit, postulans ut ob reverenciam dei et sui dictum ordinem assumerent.
Qui omnes consenserunt ejus precibus inclinati. Interea dum hec agerentur, quidam miles cum multis armigeris terram dicti lantgravii hostiliter depredavit, et dum esset in reditu, occurrit ei famulus de Castro suo, nuncians ei, quod uxor ipsius eadem hora fuisset periclitata in partu et cum puero mortuo expirasset. Quo audito miles perturbatus consideravit, quod deus ipsum sic plagasset pro eo, quod per hujusmodi depredacionem k sanctum propositum domini sui lantgravii voluit retardare. Reddito igitur spolio his, quibus abstulerat, accessit ad domi num suum petens veniarn de commisso. Cui lantgravius: quomodo, inquit, ausus es in conspectu meo comparere"? At ille, confisus, inquit, de solita benignitate gracie vestre ad vos veni, quia concepi firmiter in corde meo intrare ordinem domus Theutonice sicut et vos. De quibus verbis lantgravius tantum exultavit, quod cum gaudio irruens in amplexus ejus omne delictum remisit. Hoc facto cum dicto milite et Hermanne et Theoderico prenominatis et cum multis aliis militibus et nobilibus venit ad fratres domus Theutonice Marcburgk, ^November ubi dum deberent vestiri et more consueto prostrati jacerent ante altare et sacerdos post alias oraciones alta voce cantando inciperet: alleluja veni sancte Spiritus, descendit spiritus sanctus corporali specie sicut flamma ignis super ipsos et quanto magis quilibet ipsorum" accensus fuit in dilectione dei tanto major flamma predicta in conspectu omnium astancium apparebat".
Hic frater Conradus lantgravius magister adeo illuminatus fuit a gracia spiritus sancti, quod facta hominum secreta novit, unde nullum vicio fornicacionis reum circa se potuit sustinere. Quod quidam abbas intelligens voluit examinare, si ita res se haberet, et adducens secum duos juvenes fornicatores accessita ad magistrum, qui statim visis famulis jussit eos recedere. Sed dum famuli premissa vera contricione et confessione redirent, magister intuens eos ait: o bone Jesu, quam misericors et bonus tu es, isti duo famuli prius fuerunt filii diaboli, medo sunt filii dei.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Acts.2.3 — And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed, and it sat upon each one of them.
- ↩John.8.44;Rom.8.14;1John.3.1 — You are of your father the devil, and you desire to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks from his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. Rom.8.14 — For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 1John.3.1 — See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. For this reason the world does not know us: it did not know him.
Notes
- 1 ↩Illuminatus rendered as 'enlightened' to convey spiritual illumination by the Holy Spirit, not merely intellectual insight.
- 2 ↩Gracia spiritus sancti rendered as 'grace of the Holy Spirit' per lexeme policy for gratia.
- 3 ↩Accessit rendered as 'approached' (from accessita, likely a variant of accessit); the narrative sense is that the abbot came to the master.
- 4 ↩Medo (likely modo, 'now') rendered as 'now' to capture the contrast with prius ('previously').
- 5 ↩Contricione rendered as 'contrition' per lexeme policy for compunctio/contritio family; here in the context of sacramental confession.
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