The tomb slab belongs to Abbot Heinrich III of Eberbach. He probably came from Cologne. After Abbot Nicholas I resigned from his office in 1352, Heinrich was elected as his successor in 1353. Heinrich's election took place during an interdict, i.e. at a time when the exercise of ecclesiastical acts was prohibited due to an offense against canon law. It was subsequently approved when Pope Innocenz IV granted a dispensation in 1358. During his time in office, Abbot Heinrich III is said to have paid particular attention to maintaining monastic discipline. He also succeeded in stabilizing the finances. Heinrich was a good friend of Archbishop Gerlach of Nassau in Mainz, who decided against burial in Mainz Cathedral and instead chose Eberbach Monastery as the place of his final resting place.
Heinrich III died on April 13, 1369 and was probably the first Eberbach abbot to be buried in the converted chapter house. His sandstone tomb slab shows an incised drawing of the deceased in the habit of the order with abbot's staff and book in his hands. The epitaph does not use the usual anno domini form, which consists of the date of death, the death notice and an intercessory prayer, but instead consists of a poetic inscription. The chosen meter is the leonine hexameter, a verse form with six beats typical of Middle Latin poetry. The year of death seems somewhat awkwardly formulated, but this was done to maintain the meter.
Source: German Inscriptions Online (43, No. 101), Academy of Sciences Mainz
Image of the tomb: Michael Leukel
The epitaph reads:
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