Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/201

Rh to his reputation for virtue, learning, and prudence in business. Notwithstanding his merits, his elevation displeased some of the Silesian magnates, and William, Duke of Oppeln, did not confine himself to showing his displeasure merely by words, but turned the opportunity to account by invading and plundering the episcopal estates, and exerted himself with so much diligence, that in a few days he laid waste almost the whole of them. Wladizlaus, Duke of Teschen, (and Glogan?) however, espoused the cause of the bishop, and after a battle, William of Oppeln condescended to submit to a reconciliation with the church. Bishop Peter held the see for nine years, during which he managed the affairs of the church with prudence, and relieved it from much of the weight of debt with which it was burdened. He obtained from Ladislaus, King of Bohemia, the right of coining money, and from the Pope two bulls, one respecting the sale of Schweidnitz ale in the isle of St. John (the island in the Oder on which the Cathedral of Breslau stands); the other to relieve the inhabitants of the island from paying toll on eatables, drinkables, and building materials. The first matter seems scarcely "dignus vindice nodus," but it had been the cause of many very serious quarrels between the authorities of the city and the cathedral, and in 1381 had led to an interdict being placed on the city, the flight of the ecclesiastics, and the plunder of their houses by the force which Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia, brought down in order to settle the dispute.

Such appear to have been the chief memorable acts of Bishop Peter; and on the 6th of February, 1456, he died in the Castle of Ottmuchau, near Neisse, and on the 9th was buried in his cathedral. The inscription runs:—"Reverendus in Xpo Pater ac Dns, Petrus Dei Gracia Epus Wratislaviensis obiit anno Dni MCCC L VIo. mensis february die sexta."

The execution of this brass is coarse and irregular, far inferior to that of some of about the same date which are in the Cathedral of Bamberg. Neither is the drawing at all good. The face is not incised, but in low relief; it is now somewhat worn, but originally the point of the nose was probably raised about three-fourths of an inch above the general surface. This is probably one of the earliest examples of the use of this method of representation, there is, however, a curious female figure in the church of St. Mary at Cracow, which, judging from the style and costume (as no inscription remains), may perhaps be as early as the commencement of the fifteenth century. In later times the system of low relief was very much used in Germany, and many magnificent works of the kind still remain; they are often of great size and the most finished execution, and the heads have frequently much character and expression. The earliest noticed in which the system is fully developed is one of a bishop in the Cathedral of Bamberg, dated 1475. There are many fine examples at Bamberg, Marburg, Cracow, and a fine one by one of the Vischers of Nuremberg, in the eastern chapel of the Cathedral of Breslau. The background by the sides of the bishop's figure is curiously ornamented; on the right side of the head is the Textus, below arc two dragon's heads, and on the right side of the figure is a nondescript fish, and on the left two dragons with intertwining tails.