ROSWITHA THE NUN 



St. Paul. With such care have the illustrious bodies of these 

 two been heretofore preserved by all the rulers of this city, 

 that never has any one been permitted to carry away the least 

 portion of them, and thus their sacred limbs remain un- 

 diminished. But forasmuch as it is meet that I yield to your 

 pious request, I will grant you, without recompense, tokens 

 from both these sacred bodies, cut before your very eyes from 

 off the sacred bodies themselves, if so be that you will make 

 solemn oath to me to venerate these relics in your community, 

 of the which you have made mention, preserving them for all 

 time within your Church, sacred hymns being there sung by 

 night and by day, and a light being alway kept burning. And 

 of our apostolic right we ordain, according to your request, 

 that your community be of our See, to the end that it may be 

 secured from all secular rule. 



And Liudolf, with glad heart, made promise 

 of this, and returned home with the coveted 

 relics. 



The MS., now at Munich, which tells this 

 fascinating story of love and faith, was, it is 

 considered, written about A.D. 1000, and was 

 fortunately preserved in the Benedictine convent 

 of St. Emmeran, Ratisbon, where the scholar 

 and poet, Conrad Celtes, discovered it at the 

 end of the fifteenth century. It also includes 

 metrical legends, a fragment of a panegyric on 

 the Emperor Otho, and six dramas. Of such 

 worth were these latter counted, that when 

 Celtes published the MS. in 1501, Albert Durer 

 received a commission for an ornamental title- 

 page, and for a frontispiece to each of the 

 plays. It is by these dramas that Roswitha has 

 distinguished herself in the world of letters ; 

 for although the legends contain points of 

 interest, and are treated with skill, they are 



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