Around 1060 the German vernacular was again deemed a worthy vehicle for written literary religious expression. For the first time since the Old High German Christus und die Samariterin (circa 900) a German work of mature quality appeared, and it forever changed literary convention in Germany. This phenomenon was the Cantalina de miraculis Christi (Hymn about the Miracles of Christ), more commonly known as the Ezzolied (Song of Ezzo).

The earliest connection between the name Ezzo and a hymn composed around the middle of the eleventh century is found in the Vita Altmanni (Life of Altmann), written around 1130 at the monastery of Göttweig at the behest of the abbot Chadalhoh and reporting on the life of Bishop Altmann of Passau, who died in 1091. One of the episodes is a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, under the direction of Bishop Gunther of Bamberg and Archbishop Siegfried of Mainz, in...