The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-09-22
The Untombed Emperors Mt speyer.

Science reigns supreme nowadays and
nothing seems too sacred to be screened
from its prying eyes, The Germans have
been routing their old Emperors out Of
their graves in the great cathedral at Speyer
on the Rhine. They have rummaged the
Imperial bones thoroughly; but whatever
the scientific advantage may be the pro-
ceedings nave a ghoulish sound TO laymen.
OF course we have become accustomed
20 the despoillng Of Indian mounds and
Egyptian tomb, and 1t would DO sentimental
20 object to the exhibition Of the RAMEsE s
Of the Pyramids or tho PHARAOH OF the
Red Sea as tlcketed specimens In a museum.
They AVE been dead 80 long that not even
national susceptiblllties can be wounded
by their exhibition. When 1t comes. how
ever. TO great men Of our own race and
religion, who have lain in their graves for
only a few hundred years, tho recollection
of them az human beings with a right to the
sanctity Of Christian burial is not so ex-
tinct, and reverence for their own history
might have induced the Germans to leave
KoNRAD the Salio and RUDOLF OF Haps-
burg and the rest undlsturbed.
1t was KoNRAD III. who began to build
the speyer Cathedral, and In It's vaults It
has long been known that he and certain
of his SUCCESSORS, as well as some later
Fmperors of the Holy Roman Empire were
buried. Their stone tombs are there,
some until now intact. When by LOU
voIs's order the French army devastated
the Palatinate in 1899. the cathedral at
speyer was burned and some Of the later
tombs were broken into and the bones
scattered. What could be found Of them
was gathered up and buried again in one
coffin after tho French had left. The
dissertation Of the graves was one Of
Frances crimes against the Fatherland
that served to fire the German heart in
1870. When the cathedral was restored
the statues Of the eight Emperors who had
been buried in IL were set up and nobody
thought of examining the tombs for his
torical justification. as the Germany Of
fifty years ago was a little more reverent
and less scientific than It Is now.
Recently 1t became necessary to repair
the crypt Of the cathedral and the oppor-
tunity was at once seized 10 crafty the
curiosity of historians as to whether the
Salian Emperors were still buried In it or
not, A commission Of anthropologists
and historians and Government officials
and ecclesiastlcs was appointed and In
August last the tombs were opened and
their contents scrutinized. In the first
tomb two wasted skeletons were found
with copper gilt crowns upon their heads,
one with the inscription "GIsrLLA Impera-
triN r." on it; the other body was clearly
that Of koSRAD her husband. A few frag-
meEts Of their grave finery lay about them.
The next tomb held a crowned skeleton,
whose shroud still held together; it was
Emperor Henry III. who put order in the
Empire, purified and strengthened the
Paplcy and set his Germans in the chair
81 PETER. In the third tomb they came
across the only object Of value. The bones
were those Of Emperor HENRY ". who
fought the losing fight against the Church
and had at last to humble himself
before GREGORY VII. az Canossa. Every
thing had tftned 10 dust and even the
metal crown crumhled at the touch of the
searchers. but on "a finger of the right hand
the skeleton wore Bishop ADELBERo's
gold nng, in which were set a piece OF rock