An Inventory of Church of Staffelsee, 812

Ecclesiastical materials and goods of great variety are here described. As objects of wealth they were also items of trade. The materials of which the goods were made are noteworthy as showing what metals and textiles were in use at the time of Charlemagne.

We found in the island called Staffelsee a church built in honor of St. Michael, within which was an altar finished in gold and silver. There were five gilded reliquaries adorned with glass-like gems and crystals, and one copper reliquary gilded in parts. One small gilded cross of reliquaries with a key of silvered metal; and another larger cross finished in gold and silver and with glass-like gems. Over the same altar there hangs a silver crown, gilded in parts, weighing two pounds, and in the center there hangs a small cross made of copper and gilded, and a crystal orb, and all around that crown are thirty-five rows of smaller gems of different colors. There are 3 solidi of silver money. There are four bronze pendants worth 17 denarii. Two silver chalices, of which one, carved on the outside and gilded, is worth, together with its paten, 30 solidi, and the other, carved on the outside, together with its paten is worth 15 solidi. One silver alms-dish worth 6 solidi. One silver pyx with copper decoration, for containing incense, is worth 6 solidi. Another is worth 5 solidi. We found there a silver thurible, gilded in parts, worth 30 solidi. Another one of old copper. One copper cruet. Another of silver alloy. One copper basin and cruet. One large glass ewer. Two small glass cruets containing the sacred chrism. Two crucifixes hang above the same church, having two gilded copper discs on the ropes.

We found there two plain chasubles, one of colored wool. One dalmatic, one silk dalmatic, seven albs, four amices, thirteen linen corporals embroidered with silk for placing upon the altar. Eight palls for covering the altar. Two woolen palls, colored, for placing upon the altar. Two colored linen palls. Twenty altar cloths finished in silk. Four silk maniples embroidered with gold and pearls, and four other silk maniples. Four corporals, two stoles, one cushion embroidered with silk. There are two glass wine vessels; three tables of lead, one marble altar, one hundred and seventy communion flagons; one fald-stool.

Source:

J. P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae Cursus Completus, (Paris, 1862), Vol. XCVII, p. 341; reprinted in Roy C. Cave & Herbert H. Coulson, A Source Book for Medieval Economic History, (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1936; reprint ed., New York: Biblo & Tannen, 1965), pp. 313-314.

Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Cal. State Fullerton. The text has been modernized by Prof. Arkenberg.

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