is the memorial of Lambert vou Brunn,[1] Borne, or Bron, who held that see from 1374 until 1398, according to the annalists;[2] but it will be seen that the inscription dates his death in 1399,—the a at the end of the word nona being, no doubt, put by mistake for an o.
This prelate was a man of much importance in his day; originally a monk in the convent of Neuweiler in Alsace, he afterwards became Abbot of Gengenbach (in Baden?). Becoming known to, and esteemed by, the Emperor Charles the Fourth, he was made Chancellor of the Carolinum,— the afterwards so famous university, which that Emperor founded at Prague. He was subsequently appointed Bishop of Brixen; in 1363, Bishop of Spires; in 1371, Bishop of Strassburg; and in 1374, Bishop of Bamberg. In this last see he remained until a short time before his death, when he retired to the Convent of Gengenbach.
These frequent changes seem to have been partly occasioned by an unfortunate disposition for engaging in disputes with his flock, which appears to have belonged to him. A certain testiness seems to be traceable in the lineaments of his face, as given in this brass. The singular mode of representation, a demi-figure surmounting an escutcheon, occurs on several seals of about the same period, and particularly on one of a kinsman of Bishop Lambert, who, in the next century, was Bishop of Würzburg. The bishop, it will be seen, wears a pallium, and holds in the right hand a cross-staff, and in the left a crozier.[3] The use of the pallium and cross, usually the distinctive marks of archiepiscopal rank, was conceded to the Bishops of Bamberg in 1106. (See p. 191). The arras on the escutcheons are: 1st, Strassburg; 2nd, Bamberg; 3rd, Spires; 4th, Brixen. On the small inescutcheon in the centre are the paternal arms of the bishop—a fish-hook. It is singular that the episcopal arms are arranged neither in the order of the importance of the sees, nor in the chronological order of Bishop Lambert's occupancy.
The letters of the inscription, the Evangelistic symbols, and the lines of brass enclosing them, are all detached and separate pieces of brass. The inscription, divested of contractions, runs as follows:—Anno domini milicimo ccc. nonagecimo nona idus iuli obiit reverendus pater dominvs lampertus olim episcopvs babenbergensis hic sepultus.
The sixth rubbing was also from a figure brass, which lies in the Königs Kapelle in the church of Gadebusch in Mecklenburg. The figure, which represents a lady, is 6 feet long. The indent only of the inscription which formerly surrounded the figure remains; but two shields placed obliquely near the feet have fortunately been preserved, and the bearings upon them leave little doubt who it is that is commemorated by this effigy. Both shields are quartered; on the dexter are, 1st, Sweden; 2nd, Mecklenberg;[4] 3rd, Stargard or Schwerin; 4th, Wenden;[5] on the sinister
- ↑ See Cygnæus, Ann. Bamb. Prodromus, in Reinhard's Sammlung Seltener Sehriften. Gualterius, Chronicon Chronicorum, &c.
- ↑ Ober Bronn, not far from Haguenau, in lower Alsace. v. Sehœpflin, Alsatia Illust.
- ↑ It will be seen in the cut that the top of the cross-staff is bent to one side; this is, no doubt, occasioned by carelessness in re-setting the brass in its present casement.
- ↑ The coat is simply party per fess. Stargard is given as party per fess gules aud or. Schwerin as party per fess azure, a griffin or, and vert. There is some reason for supposing the griffin to be a later addition, and Stargard only fell to Mecklenburg at a date later than the probable date of this brass.
- ↑ This coat is a griffin; Wenden is given as, az. a griffin or. Where, as is often the case in Germany, neighbouring
