REICHENAU. — Known as “Augia dives,” an island on Lake Constance connected to the mainland by a causeway; today it belongs to Baden. It was the site of a historic Benedictine abbey.
In the year 724, Charles Martel donated to Bishop Pirmin the island of Sindlezzeisan located on the Rhine near Lake Constance. Pirmin founded there a Benedictine monastery later called “Augia dives” (q.v.). The authentic text of Charlemagne’s diploma was restored by K. Brandi from a 12th-century forgery (Die Gründung der Abtei R., I, Munich 1925, pp. 10 ff.). Pirmin also took part in the foundation of Hornbach, where he died in 754; his epitaph is preserved by Rabanus Maurus (MGH, Poëtae latini aevi Carolini, II, p. 224). For his figure, see I. Perez, S. Pimenio, in Boletín de la R. Academia de la historia, 77 (1920), pp. 132 ff.; G. Jecker, St. Pirmin’s Herkunft und Mission in der Kultur der Abtei R., I, Munich 1925, pp. 19, 36; id., Die Heimat des hl. Pirmins, des Apostel der Alamannen, in Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Mönchtums und des Benediktinerordens, XIII, Münster 1927.
Pirmin’s successor at R. in 727 was Heddo, who introduced the Benedictine Rule; in 734 he was elected Bishop of Strasbourg. He was followed by the abbots Kebe (734–36), Arnefrid (736–46), Sidonius (746–60), John (760–82), Peter (782–86), Waldo (786–86), who was also Bishop of Pavia and Basel; Haito (806–23), likewise Bishop of Basel. Charlemagne made two rich donations to R. when he visited it in 780 and 813.
The development of the monastic constitution of R. up to the reform of 817 has been studied by M. Rothenhäusler and C. Beyerle (Die Regel des heil. Benedikt, das Gesetz des Inselklosters und seine Verträglichung, in Beiträge cit., pp. 263–315). Other privileges were granted by Louis the Pious
REICHENAU — Lake Constance with the peninsula of R.
and Charles the Bald, who was buried in the monastic church of Mittelzell. The abbey enjoyed immunity from secular authority, the jurisdiction of the forum, and exemption from episcopal jurisdiction. Other abbots were Erlebaldo (823–38), who is said to have received from Bishop Ratoldo the relics of St. Mark; Walahfrid Strabo (836–49), one of the most outstanding minds of the Carolingian age; Hatto III (891–913), who founded Oberzell and became Archbishop of Mainz; Heribercht obtained the relics known as “of the Blood.” Ruodman (972–85), Witi-gov (985–97), Immo (1006–1008), Berno of Cluny (1008–48), and Hermannus Contractus revitalized the scriptorium. Pope Gregory V (996–99) granted privileges to the abbey, as did the Ottonian emperors. Notable is the bull of Innocent II of March 22, 1207, concerning the possessions and rights of the abbey. Great prosperity led to relaxation of the Rule and decline; in 1521 the abbey was incorporated into the Diocese of Constance, whose bishops became commendatory abbots of R.; the community was reduced to twelve monks including the prior. In 1757 the novitiate was abolished. The monastery was secularized in 1802.
The literary output of the abbey was very active and prolific, spreading throughout Germany and even into Italy. Suffice it to recall the Gospel book of St. Ausfried in the Archiepiscopal Museum of Utrecht, that of Emperor Otto in the cathedral of Aachen, the Gospel manuscript offered by Canon Illinus to Cologne Cathedral, the Sacramentary of the Abbey of St. Maximin in Trier, now in Paris (Bibl. nation., Cod. lat. 1805); most of the manuscripts donated by Emperor Henry II to Bamberg Cathedral. The apogee of R. came under the Ottonian dynasty.
The school of R. counted among its teachers and pupils such luminaries as Waldo, Haito, Erlebaldo, Wetti, Hatto, Reginbert, and Walahfrid Strabo; after the latter’s death in 849, the flourishing period of the school began to decline. The development of the liturgy at R. and its relations with the Roman rite, its relics, etc., were expounded by A. Manser and C. Beyerle, Aus dem liturgischen Leben der R., in Beiträge cit. (pp. 316–437). The poets were Walahfrid Strabo and Ennenrich of Eltwangen, Burchard, Ruotbert, the abbot Berno, Hermannus Contractus (A. Bergmann, Die Dichtung der R. im Mittelalter, in Beiträge cit., pp. 711–55). From the scriptorium of R. came Walahfrid Strabo (839–849), Hatto III (891–913), Archbishop of Mainz, the abbot Berno, St. Meinrad, Count of Zollern (861), founder of Our Lady of Einsiedeln, and Hermannus Contractus (1054). Famous was the library of R. and the school of illumination, from which came the codex of Egbert (H. Sierp, Walafrid Strabos Gedicht über den Gartenbau, a poem on De cultura arborum, in Beiträge cit., pp. 756–72). The principal historical works are the annals of the early period and the writings of Hermannus Contractus and his pupil Berthold (J. R. Dieterich, Die Geschichtschreibung der R., in Beiträge cit., pp. 773–801). The activity of Reginbert and his pupils in transcribing
Nachträge, ibid. 1911; III. Grundstock der Bibliothek: Die alten Kataloge, Zeugnisse zur Bibliotheksgeschichte gesammelt und bearbeitet von Karl Preisendanz, 1918). The three villages of Oberzell, Mittelzell, and Unterzell or Niderzell (from “cella”) contain notable churches. At the center of the island stands the cathedral first dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, then to St. Mark. It was erected by Abbot Eddo and dedicated in 816; it was frescoed in 985 and enlarged in the mid-11th century. In the treasury is the Reliquary of St. Mark (measuring 1.20 m x 0.42 m, first half of the 14th century), a rectangular casket with a roof entirely covered with gilded silver leaves depicting scenes from the life of Christ and two episodes relating to the history of the relics of St. Mark and their translation to R.
To the northeast of the island, Egino, Bishop of Verona, founded in 799 the church of SS. Peter and Paul, which in its current Romanesque form dates from the beginning of the 12th century. It is divided by columns into three naves; beneath the high altar lies the tomb of Egino. In 1880, in the church of St. George at Oberzell on the island of R., it was discovered that the entire church had been frescoed in the time of Abbot Witi-gov (985–97); among the frescoes are: medallions with Prophets; the Twelve Apostles; the Raising of Lazarus, the Healing of the Hemorrhaging Woman; the Raising of the Widow’s Son of Nain and the Daughter of Jairus; the Healing of the Leper; the Exorcism of the Gerasene Demoniac; the Healing of the Man with Dropsy; the Storm on the Sea of Galilee; the Healing of the Man Born Blind. For the paintings, see J. Sauer, Die Monumentalmalerei der R. (pp. 902–55). For the sacred buildings of R., see O. Grüber, Die Kirchenbauten der R., in Beiträge cit., pp. 821–71; K. Gröber has studied Reich. Plastik bis zum Anfang des Mittelalters in Beiträge cit. (pp. 872–901). The treasury preserves a gilded silver reliquary said to have contained particles of the Blood of the Redeemer, brought from the East as a gift to Charlemagne; a manuscript preserved in Karlsruhe (Codex Augensis, 84), from the late 10th or 11th century, recounts its history; but the reliquary itself is not earlier than the 12th century: on the reverse is a Greek inscription reading: “Lord, help your servant Ilarion Igrithon, hegumen of your monastery” (A. Heisenberg, Das Kreuzreliquiar der R., in Sitzungsberichte der bayer. Akad. der Wissenschaft; Philos.-philolog. und hist. Klasse, 1926; K. Künstle, Die Kunst des Klosters R. im IX. und X. Jahrhunderts und der neuentdeckte karolingische Gebäudezyklin zu Goldbach bei Überlingen, Freiburg in Br. 1906; id., R., Seine berühmtesten Äbte, Lehrer und Theologen, ibid. 1924; Cottineau, II, 2427–30). Enrico Josi