Aegidius Gelenius (10 June 1595 – 24 August 1656) was a German clergyman and historian who worked as historiographer to the

Archbishop-Elector of Cologne The Archbishop of Cologne is an archbishop governing the Archdiocese of Cologne of the Catholic Church in western North Rhine-Westphalia and is also a historical state in the Rhine holding the birthplace of Beethoven and northern Rhineland-Palati ...

, Ferdinand of Bavaria. He had at his disposal some earlier sources that are not in existence today, including a life of Herman of Scheda. He developed a late

hatching system Hatching (sometimes called ''hachure'', from the French word) is a conventional system for monochrome denotation of heraldic armory, whereby the tinctures (colours) are represented by dots and lines. This technique is employed in cases where col ...

for heraldry but it did not gain popularity.

Life

Gelenius was born in Kempen and was the brother of Johannes Gelenius. He began his studies with the

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

in 1614 and continued them in Italy. He spent about five years in the

Collegium Germanicum The Collegio Teutonico (German College), historically often referred to by its Latin name Collegium Germanicum, is one of the Pontifical Colleges of Rome. The German College is the Pontifical College established for future ecclesiastics of German ...

in Rome doing philosophical, ecclesiastical, dogmatical and "archaeological" studies. He was consecrated in 1616 in the

Lateran 250px, Basilica and Palace - side view Lateran and Laterano are the shared names of several buildings in Rome. The properties were once owned by the Lateranus family of the Roman Empire. The Laterani lost their properties to Emperor Constantine ...

church and was awarded the degree

Bachelor of Theology The Bachelor of Theology degree (BTh, ThB, or BTheol) is a three- to five-year undergraduate degree in theological disciplines and is typically pursued by those seeking ordination for ministry in a church, denomination, or parachurch organization. ...

from Perugia University. In 1621, he became a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

of the St. Andreas Closter in Cologne and was promoted to the

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

department of theology in 1623 where he obtained a licentiate degree in theology. Between 1625 and 1631, he served in St. Christoph church. In 1645, the

prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...

Wolfgang Wilhelm requested him to take up the office of canonical visitor for the ecclesial institutions of the

Duchy of Berg Berg was a state—originally a county, later a duchy—in the Rhineland of Germany. Its capital was Düsseldorf. It existed as a distinct political entity from the early 12th to the 19th centuries. The name of the county lives on in the modern ...

with a brief to improve their efficiencies. In 1647 he was elected

scholaster A scholaster, from the Latin ''scholasticus'' (schoolmaster), or magister scholarum, was the head of an ecclesiastical school, typically a cathedral school, monastic school, or the school of a collegiate church, in medieval and early-modern Europe ...

of St. Andreas, became the supervisor of the Cologne archbishopric in 1650, appointed the

auditor An auditor is a person or a firm appointed by a company to execute an audit.Practical Auditing, Kul Narsingh Shrestha, 2012, Nabin Prakashan, Nepal To act as an auditor, a person should be certified by the regulatory authority of accounting and a ...

of the Cologne Nunciature in 1653, and before his death in 1656 he was consecrated as auxiliary bishop of

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...

Works

His brother Johannes (1585-1631) was also a renowned ecclesiastical personality besides being an outstanding Cologne

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

who began to put together some valuable historical

sources Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...

about the

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

of the

archdiocese of Cologne The Archdiocese of Cologne ( la, Archidioecesis Coloniensis; german: Erzbistum Köln) is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church in western North Rhine-Westphalia and northern Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. History The Electorate of Cologn ...

in his bid to write a comprehensive book but could not complete as he met with a premature death. But his brother Aegidius promised to complete his work when he was on the deathbed and accordingly Aegidius left his job and began to concentrate only on the work that his departed brother began. After spending almost 15 years ”day in day out”, he put together a 30-volume historic work from original sources. Each volume deals with a distinguished topic like temples, archives, medals, paintings, the university etc. But even after his resignation from the St. Christoph church, Gelenius could not work quiet properly, as he was in high demand from many quarters. He had been getting frequent requests from different aristocrats to elevate the Catholic religion. He wrote the biographies of the dukes of Guelders and

Cleves Kleve (; traditional en, Cleves ; nl, Kleef; french: Clèves; es, Cléveris; la, Clivia; Low Rhenish: ''Kleff'') is a town in the Lower Rhine region of northwestern Germany near the Dutch border and the River Rhine. From the 11th century ...

and the counts of Mark, the ''

Limburg Chronicle Limburg Chronicle, or Festi Limpurgenses, is the name of a German chronicle that was probably written by Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen after 1402. It is a source for the history of the Rhineland between 1336 and 1398, but is perhaps more valuable f ...

'', the story of Jacob of

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...

, and the chronicle of the Counts of Thüringia, etc. He named these collections as ''Farrago diplomatum et notationum pro historia''. However, on the occasion of the 1744th inventory, three volumes (12, 19, and 23) were missing or were under the ownership of other institutions already, and of these, the volume No. 12 contained the manuscript ''De magnitudine Coloniae''. A small section of volume 12 is quoted by Godfrey Henschen in the ''Acta Sanctorum'' under the entry for Saint Alban (June 22nd).

Gelenius in heraldry

His main work was ''De admiranda sacra et civili magnitudine Coloniae''... published in 1645, which dealt largely with the city's church history, sacred monuments and holy relics. Today this is the only source of information on some events because documents have been lost. In 1644, he sought permission from the city council to publish this work, which was printed the following year with

imprimatur An ''imprimatur'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''impr.'', from Latin, "let it be printed") is a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement. The imprimatur rule in the R ...

s from Cologne, Dusseldorf and Kempen.

Signature mark A signature mark, in traditional bookbinding, is a letter, number or combination of either or both, which is printed at the bottom of the first page, or leaf, of a section. (The section is itself often known as a "signature", although technical ...

††2. Gelenius was influenced by Petra Sancta; they met several times in Cologne. Gelenius also studied the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

and antiquities of the Rhenish nobility in the territory neighboring the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

. He put together a Rhenish armorial book arranged according to the

charge Charge or charged may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * '' Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary Music * ''Charge'' (David Ford album) * ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album) * ''Charge!!'', an album by The Aqu ...

Philipp Jakob Spener Philipp Jakob Spener (23 January 1635 – 5 February 1705), was a German Lutheran theologian who essentially founded what would become to be known as Pietism. He was later dubbed the "Father of Pietism". A prolific writer, his two main works, '' ...

repeatedly quotes from Gelenius in his 1690 work titled ''Insignium Theoria''. However, Gelenius's

is identical only at two points with Petra Sancta, but totally the same as the one of

Christophe Butkens Christophe Butkens (1590–1650) was a Cistercian abbot from Antwerp, a historian and a genealogist who developed a new hatching system. Hatching systems Butkens developed his own hatching system but he himself used it in an inconsistent wa ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gelenius, Aegidius Heraldists 1595 births 1656 deaths University of Perugia alumni