Himmlische Offenbarungen

first books roughly and set them on paper. After that, obedience took me away / and sent me to another monastery of our Order in Bavaria / where I had to attend to other matters / and of necessity had to cease this work / so that for four years nothing was done on it. In the meantime, the aforementioned Roman Imperial Majesty / of most Christ-like memory / departed this world / and changed the earthly kingdom for the heavenly one. Nevertheless, upon my return, I took the said work in hand once more / and have toiled therein until now / and by means of Divine grace / finally brought one part to an end at this time / as well as I was able according to my small capacity and understanding.

Now this translation / and all my labor / is primarily intended so that I might show some sign of gratitude to the Most Illustrious House of Austria / just as our duty and obligation requires / for the great affection and love which Your Majesty's most illustrious father, Ferdinand / of most blessed memory / bore toward Saint Birgitta during his lifetime. For we know / and it is world-famous / that he was devoted to her from the heart / and had a special devotion to her / and in the greatest necessities sought his refuge with God through her. Among other things / during the Swedish war / he made a vow to God / that if the enemy in Austria did not cross the bridges of the Danube / he would build a chapel there in honor of Saint Birgitta. And God heard him / and restrained the enemy so that he did not cross the Danube / as I have been told by a spiritual man of the Order / who knows well of it. Therefore he then fulfilled his vow / and had a beautiful chapel erected in honor of Saint Birgitta / on the Danube not far from the city of Vienna / and moreover established annual masses / which are read and performed weekly in the same chapel. For the sake of brevity / I will not mention other Roman Emperors and ancestors / who likewise held this Holy Lady in high honor: such as Emperor Maximilian / who also had her revelations printed at Nuremberg in the year of the Lord 1517 / as can be clearly gathered from the very beginning of the first preface of the Nuremberg copy: Also Emperor Charles the IV of this name / who had the
fortune

fortune to see Saint Birgitta while she still lived / and she had the grace to speak with him / and to deliver to him certain revelations from God in the city of Rome around the year of Christ 1359 / or the year following / as is to be found in her books original: "Revelat. Extravag. c. 8.". Likewise I could bring forward many others / whom if I were to recount them all at length / I would have to make a considerable register. But that would be contrary to my intention / as I seek in this place only to dedicate and ascribe my translation to him to whom it actually belongs.

Accordingly then / from what precedes / it is easily concluded that these Revelations of Saint Birgitta belong to no other than the Roman Emperor / especially since he gave the cause and occasion for such a translation and version / thus I have taken the liberty to dedicate and assign the same to Your Imperial Majesty. And therefore I dedicate and assign them herewith to Your Majesty in deepest humility / most submissively praying / that You deign to receive such in Imperial grace / and take them into Your protection and shield / and to maintain and defend them with Imperial authority and power / in case it should happen that some opponent should presume to bite against them / as happened in olden times / notwithstanding that they are sufficiently validated and authenticated by the Christian Roman Church to whose obedience I also submit my translation in all things.

Regarding the matter of the mentioned Revelations / I will let others judge; I can only say this: Vino vendibili non opus est hedera Good wine needs no ivy-wreath original: "Vino vendibili non opus est hedera" - a Latin proverb meaning that a good product needs no advertisement.. Everything said therein up to the Life of Saint Birgitta / and what follows after / is revealed from Heaven / from God and his Saints / with very few exceptions. Therein is treated only of Heaven / and the Earth / of Purgatory / and of Hell / just as the illustration in the front shows. All estates of the world / spiritual and secular / find their part / and wholesome teachings to arrange their lives according to God. However / here and there the perverse customs of evil men are also strongly rebuked / but such must be understood primarily of those people who lived in the same hundred years in which Saint Birgitta served as a trumpet of God / or rather God through her / namely from the year 1302 until the year 1373 when she died: for her writings are / as it were / histories of that time. Besides this / there are described and depicted in detail in these revelations the life / and the entire course of the Passion of Christ in different chapters: also the life and excellent virtues of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary / and in part the lives of certain Saints / and other notable matters
more.