But it was not long before Henry fell dangerously ill, and Edith, the wife of Otho, deeming this a punishment for the wrong done to the saintly dowager empress, and dreading the same for her husband, persuaded Otho to recall his mother. He wrote to her, asking her pardon, and expressing his deep contrition for his past ingratitude. Mathilda was not one to bear resentment, and she returned to court. Mathilda now reaped with sorrow the harvest of her early involuntary fault in marrying a divorced man. Thankmar was in rebellion, for Otho had not been content with depriving him of the imperial throne, but had also seized his large maternal inheritance in Saxony, and had bestowed it on an adherent and friend. Thankmar took arms, and was upheld by the Saxons. The emperor marched against his half-brother, besieged him in Everburg, and Thankmar was slain at the foot of the altar, whither he had fled for safety. Thankmar had been joined by Eberhardt, duke of Franconia, who, now that all was lost, fell at the feet of Henry of Bavaria, and besought him to intercede in his behalf with the emperor. To his surprise, Henry replied, that he was willing to join with him in his designs against Otho, in order to deprive him of the crown, which he coveted for himself. For the present the two confederates dissembled their projects, and Eberhardt made his submission to Otho with expressions of the deepest contrition for his guilt. Henry gained confederates to his conspiracy, and suddenly attacked Otho as he was crossing the Rhine at Zante, but was defeated with great slaughter. Otho pardoned his brother, who remained afterwards true to his allegiance, finding that it was his best interest to cling to his powerful brother. He was a man of treacherous and cruel heart, and when his Bavarian subjects rose against him, and called the Hungarians to their assistance, having defeated them with the aid of Otho (955), he buried alive, or burnt in beds of quicklime, the leaders of the adverse party, put out the eyes of the bishop of Salzburg, and the patriarch Lupus of Aquileia met with a still more wretched fate at his hands.
In the midst of all these civil wars the dowager empress laboured to relieve the sorrows of the peasants upon whom the state of hostilities weighed most heavily. Her time was devoted to nursing the sick, releasing debtors from prison, and feeding the starving.
But at length, saddened beyond endurance by the conduct of her sons, and despairing of the world, she retired into the monastery of Nordhausen, which she had built, and gathering about her three thousand sisters, spent the rest of her days in tears and prayer. She lived to receive her grand-daughter, Mathilda, the child of the emperor Otho, into her house, and to commit into her hands the government of the community.
She died on March 14th, 968, and was buried in the church of S. Servetus, at Quedlinburg, by the side of her husband, Henry.
SLOTHFULNESS AND GLUTTONY.
Symbolic carving at the Abbey of S. Denis.
[March 15.]
S. Aristobulus, M., 1st cent. S. Longinus, M., 1st cent. S. Nicander, M. in Egypt, circ. A.D. 302. S. Matrona, M. at Thessalonica. S. Matrona, V. in Portugal. S. Matrona, V.M. at Barcelona, in Spain. S. Magorian, C. at Trent, 5th cent. S. Tranquillius, Ab. at Dijon, 6th cent. S. Zacharias, Pope of Rome, A.D. 752. S. Leocritia, V.M. at Cordova. (See p. 220.)