The collection was
formed mainly out of the numerous presents brought to the young Emperor
from foreign, and especially Greek and Oriental, princes, and contained
many examples of beautiful metal-work and Greek illumination. His own
Cathedral of Hildesheim was supplied with jewelled service-books, in
part at least the work of his own hand. The chalices and incense-burners
and the massive golden corona or candelabrum of the cathedral were also
the productions of his own workshops. The mural paintings, too, were
executed by himself. His handiwork, so lovingly described by his old
schoolmaster Tangmar, may still be seen in Hildesheim, where visitors to
that quaint old Saxon city are told that the bronze gates of the
cathedral and the jewelled crucifix were placed there by the venerable
bishop himself in 1015, while in the cathedral-close rises a column
adorned with bronze reliefs from the Life of Christ, authoritatively
declared to be the work of his own hands--let us say they came out of
his own workshops, in the year 1022, nearly a thousand years ago. St.
Bernward was canonised by Celestine III. in 1194. His sarcophagus is in
the crypt of the Basilica of St. Michael at Hildesheim. Of Tuotilo, the
pupil of Moengall (or Marcellus), it is said that he was physically
almost a giant; just the man, says his biographer, that you would choose
for a wrestler.
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