Queenship and Sanctity: The Lives of Mathilda and the Epitaph of Adelheid (Medieval Texts in Translation)

The Epitaph of Adelheid

Odilo of Cluny The Epitaph of Adelheid To the venerable lord abbot Andreas and all of the brothers entrusted to him, who devoutly serve our Lord and Savior on the outskirts of Pavia:1 brother Odilo, the dregs of all of the paupers of Cluny, sends wishes for prosperity in this life and for everlasting joy.2 I have taken the trouble to send Your Fraternity this Epitaph, written in a poor style, of our domina and august empress Adelheid, concluding that it would be fitting for you to cultivate continually the memory of her whose industry and prudence raised up the buildings of your monastery, and by whose great generosity you continually have been sustained. Indeed, we have not produced this brief and lowly account of so great a subject in order that our words should offer adequate praise of such great virtue and nobility , but rather that some learned man later could take the opportunity to write about it, so that eminent deeds expressed in even more eminent words might resound in the ears of empresses and queens. In turn, when they have heard great accounts of great things, eagerly following her of whom we speak on the path of integrity , then domestic administration shall flourish through them, just as the republic3 prospered far and wide through her. Here begins the text. During our lifetime, while the first Otto felicitously exercised dominion, the Lord, who orders all things and dispenses every honor and dignity, bestowed upon the Roman republic a venerable  honor in female form.4 This was the Empress Adelheid, of blessed and venerated memory, the author after God of many virtues and good deeds. While I have striven to preserve her memory in writing for those yet to come, I fear that I rightly will be rebuked for trying to address a topic of such nobility and virtue inappropriately and in a poor style. But whoever might rebuke us, insofar as we are deserving of rebuke, either on account of our rough speech, the novelty of our subject-matter, or the simplicity of our natural expression , should know without a doubt that it is not desire for human praise which has drawn us to this task, but a feeling of true and most sincere love.5 If you, reader, wish to spurn our rustic and humble talents (as indeed you deservedly should), then focus your attention upon the nobility, both in mind and body, of her whom we have chosen to honor. For if you would rather wait for a man endowed with enough eloquence and wisdom to offer a fitting description of this woman’s life, then let Cicero the rhetor be called back from hell, or the presbyter Jerome be sent down from the heavens.6 Indeed, if the holy priest Jerome, unmatched in divine and human wisdom, had lived at the same time as the empress, then just as he endeavored in his books and letters to commend Paula and Eustochium, Marcella and Melania, Fabiola and Blesilla, Leta and Demetrias, or the woman struck seven times,7 he would have commended her as well in no small number of volumes. But if there is no one, either a Jerome or someone else thoroughly versed in the liberal arts, who might fittingly describe the character and life of so great a woman, then let us (although unlearned) undertake to do so, with God’s aid and to the best of our ability. . Adelheid sprang from a royal and religious lineage.8 While still a young girl of sixteen years, she attained through God’s generosity a royal marriage to King Lothar, the son of the wealthy king of Italy, Hugh.9 From their union she had a daughter, from whom King Lothar of the Franks brought forth King Louis, who died childless and is known to have been buried, according to royal custom, at Compiègne.10 Lothar, however, died before the third The Epitaph of Adelheid  year of his marriage to the domina Adelheid had passed,11 leaving her widowed from her husband, deprived of the kingdom, and bereft of marital counsel. The sting of persecution afflicted her, which is wont to purify the elect just as the furnace purifies gold.12 Therefore, we believe that this did not happen on account of her own guilt, but as a result of the unforeseen gifts of divine providence . I would maintain that...