Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/450

 ELIZABETH

392

ELLWANOEN

Elizabeth of Sch'dnau, Saint, 1). about 1129; d. 18 June, 1165. — Feast IS June. She was bom of an obscure family, entered the double-monastery of Schonau in Xassau at the age of twelve, received the Benedictine habit, made her profession in 1147, and in 1 1 .'jT was made superioress of the nuns under the Abbot Hildelin. After her death she was buried in the abbey church of St. Florin. When her writings were pub- lished the name of saint was added. She was never formally canonized, but in 1584 her name was en- tered in the Roman Martyrology and has remained there.

Ciiven to works of piety from her youth, much afflicted with bodily and mental suffering, a zealous observer of the Rule of St. Benedict and of the regula- tions of her convent, and devoted to practices of mor- tification, Elizabeth was favoured, from 1152, with ecstasies and visions of various kinds. These generally occurred on Sundays and Holy Days at Mass or Divine Office or after hearing or reading the lives of saints. Christ, His Blessed Mother, an angel, or the special saint of the day would appear to her and in.struct her; or she would see quite realistic representations of the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, or other scenes of the Old and New Testaments. What she saw and heard she put down on wax tablets. Her abbot, Hilde- lin, told her to relate these things to her brother Egbert (Eckebert), then priest at the church of Bonn. At first she hesitatetl, fearing lest she be deceived or be looked upon as a deceiver; but she obeyed. Egbert received the tablets and Elizabeth supplemented what she had written by oral explanations.' Egbert (who became a monk of Schonau in 1155 and succeeded Hildelin as second abbot) put everj'thing in writing, later ar- ranged the material at leisure, and then published all under his sister's name.

Thus came into existence (1) three books of "Vis- ions ". Of these the first is written in language very simple and in unaffected style, so that it may easily pass as the work of Elizabeth. The other two are more elaborate and replete with theological terminology, so that they show more of the work of Egbert than of Elizabeth. (2) "Liberviarum Dei". This seems to be an imitation of the"Scivias" (scire vias Dotnini) of St. Hildegarde of Bingen, her friend and correspondent. It contains admonitions to all classes of society, to the clergj' and laity, to the married and unmarried. Here the influence of Egbert is very plain. She utters pro- phetic threats of judgment against priests who are unfaithful shepherds of the flock of Christ, against the avarice and wordliness of the monks who only wear the garb of poverty and self-denial, against the vices of the laity, and against bishops and superiors delin- quent in their duty; she urges all to combat earnestly the heresy of the Cathari ; she declares Victor IV, the ant ipope supported by Frederick against Alexander 1 1 1 , as the one chosen of God. All of this appears in Eg- bert's own writings. (.3) The revelation on the mar- tyrdom of St. Ursula and her companions. This is full of fantastic exaggerations and anachronisms, but has become the foundation of the subsequent Ursula legends. There is a great diversity of opinion in regard to her revelations. The Church has never passed sen- tence upon them nor even examined them. Elizabeth herself was convinced of their supernatural character, as .she states in a letter to Hildegarde; her brother held the .same opinion; Trithemius considers them genuine; Eusebius Amort (De revelationibus \'isionibus et appariti(>nib\is privatis regula? tutse, etc., Augs- burg, 1714) holds them to be nothing more than what Elizabeth's own imagination could produce, or illusions of the devil, since in some things they disa-

§ree with history and with other revelations (Acta S., Oct., IX, 81). A complete edition of her writ- ings was made by F. W. E. Roth (Brimn, 1884); translations appeared in Italian (Venice, IS-TO), French (Toumai, 1864), and in Icelandic (1226-1254).

Butler. Litjcs o/ the Saints; Streber in Kirchenlex., s. v.; Hauck, KiTchengesch. Deutschl., IV, 244 sqq.; Pregeh, Deutsche Mystik. I. 37; Acta SS.. June, IV, 499; Roth. Dot Gebetbuch der Elisabeth von Schonau.

Francis Mershman.

Ellis, Philip Michael, first Vicar Apostolic of the Western District, England, subsequently Bishop of Segni, Italy, b. in 1652; d. 16 Nov., 1726. He was the son of the Rev. John Ellis, Rector of Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, a descendant of the Ellis family of Kiddall Hall, Yorkshire, and Susannah Welbore. Of six brothers, John, the eldest, became Under-Secre- tary of State to William III ; William, a Jacobite Prot- estant, was Secretary of State to James II in exile; Philip became a Benedictine monk and Catholic bishop; Welbore became Protestant Bishop of Kildare and afterwards of Meath, Ireland; Samuel was Mar- shal of King's Bench; and Charles an Anglican clergy- man. Philip, while still a Westminster schoolboy, was converted to the Catholic Faith, and when eigh- teen years old went to St. Gregory's, Douai, where he was professed, taking the name of Michael in religion (30 Nov., 1670). After ordination he returned in

1685 to the English mission where he became one of the royal chaplains. In 1688 he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of the newly created Western District and was consecrated by Mgr. d'Adda, the papal nuncio (6 Ma}'). At the revolution in 1688 he was imprisoned, but being soon liberated he retired to Saint-Germain and afterwards to Rome. In 1696 he was named as- sistant prelate at the pontifical throne; and in Rome his knowledge of English affairs made him so useful that his repeated petitions for leave to return to his vicariate were refused. In 1704 he resigned the vicari- ate, and in 170S was made Bishop of Segni, being en- throned on 28 Oct. His first care was to rebuild the ruined monastery of S. Chiara and open it as a dio- cesan seminary. This he enriched with many gifts and a large legacy. A curious survival of his English title survives in an inscription at Segni to "Ph. M. Mylord Ellis". Eleven sermons preached in 1685 and

1686 before James II, Queen Mary of Modena, and Queen Henrietta Maria, were published in pamphlet form, some of which have been reprinted (London, 1741; 1772). The Acts of his synod at Segni in 1710 were also published by order of Clement XI.

Donn. Ch. HUt. (Brassels, 1737-42), III, 467; Ellis. Ellis Cor- respondence (London, 1829). with portrait, letters and some- wliat inaccurate biographical details; The Rambler (April, 1851). VII; OuvER, Collections (London, 1S57), 294, 511; BR.tDT. Episcopal Succession.jetc. (Rome, 1S77),_III, 281 ; Wi

Snow, lienedictine Necrology (London, 1883); Gillow, Bibl. Did. Eng. Cath. (London, 1886), II, 161; Cooper in Diet. Nat. Biog. (London, 1889), XVII.

Edwin Burton.

EUwangen Abbey, the earliest Benedictine mon- astery estalilisheil in the Duchy of Wtirtemberg, situ- ated in the Diocese of Augsburg about thirty miles north-east of the town of Stuttgart. Hariolfus, Bishop of Langres, was the founder, and the date of foundation was about 764, though there are a few authorities for as early a date as 732. In later times it became a royal abbey, a privilege which seems to have been conferred in 1011 by the Emperor Henry II, and afterwards confirmed by the Emperor Charles IV, in 1347. Some authorities date the granting of this privilege as late as 1555. This cannot be correct, for it is known that the superior of EUwangen took his seat in the Diet among the princes of the country in 1500. The Benedictine occupation of the abbey came to an end in the first half of the fifteenth century. In 1 460 it was changed into a college of secu- lar canons under the rule of a provost. EUwangen had many men of renown connected with it : the .ab- bots Lintlolf and Erfinan, whom Mabillon speaks of as famous authors; Abbot Gebhard began to write the life of St. Udalricus but died before completing it;