Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/288

 218 ON THE BRONZE DOORS OP THE CATHEDRAL OF GNESEN. brethren. Strange to say, however, the pitcher was whole and the wine unspilt. In the year 994 St. Adalbert was commanded by the Pope to return to his diocese ; here he was at fii-st well received, but the wickedness of the Bohemians, and especially the murder of a woman who, having committed adultery, had taken sanctuary in the nunnery of St. George, and was forcibly dragged out from thence and decapitated, compelled him again to leave Prague. Thence he went into Hungary, where he laboured with much success, and baptised the king's son, St. Stephen. From Hungary he returned to his Roman monastery, where he remained until, in the year 995, Willigisus, Archbishop of Mentz, came there in com- pany with the Emperor Otho the Third. The primate of Germany comjDlaining that so important a see should remain deprived of its bishop, Adalbert was a second time compelled to leave the convent, and crossing the Alps, after about two months travelling, he reached Mentz, where he remained for some time at the court of the emperor, who took much pleasure in his company.^ While here he had a vision, from which he augured his approaching martyrdom. From Mentz he passed into France, visited Tours and Fleury, and then set out for Bohemia. On his road, however, he heard of the massacre of four of his brothers and their children, male as well as female, which had been perpetrated by some of his enemies, and abandoning his intention of returning to Prague, he betook himself to Boleslaus,^ Duke of Poland, with whom his elder brother happening to be, had for the time escaped the fate of his kindred. From the court of the Polish duke he communicated with the Bohemians, but finding that they utterly spurned and rejected him, he resolved to abandon them to their evil ways, and to attempt the conversion of the heathens of the north and east of Europe. He visited Gnesen,^ where he baptised many of the natives, and travelling thence to the Vistula, he embarked with his two companions, Benedictus a priest, and his " A quaint story is told of liis conduct " According to the usually received at this period. « Noctihus cum carpserant chronology, Boleslaus did not succeed (i. c. the members of the imperial house- Miecislaus I. until 99D. hold) soninum, calceauunta eorum com- * Dlugosz, and other Polish chroniclers poiuTo cura fuit. Ab janitorc usfiiie ad following him, reckon St. Adalbert a,s I'rincipem Hegipe domus onmimn caligas Archbishop of Gnescn, but this receives Ji'iua alduit, et purgatis sordibus, eas no sanction ironi the early writers, •suo loco restituit." — Vila Prior, cap. 5.