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[German Version] (c. 1214/1220, England – c. 1292). After studying arts in Oxford and perhaps in Paris (M.A. c. 1236/1240), Bacon taught in the Paris faculty of arts until about 1247. It is uncertain whether he then returned to England, and where he entered the Franciscan order (probably before 1256). After theological studies (in Oxford?) he was again in Paris around 1257. ¶ Here, c. 1263, he found a patron in Cardinal Gui Foucois (Guy Foulques the Fat), later Pope Clement IV (1265–1268), to whom he sent several works on request (including the Opus maius, the Opus minus, and perhaps the Opus t…

[German Version] I. Comparative Religion – II. Christianity – III. Buddhism – IV. Monastic Law I. Comparative Religion The term monastery (or cloister) derives from the Christian tradition, where it denotes the living and working quarters, relatively secluded from the outside world, of a monastic community leading some type of ascetic life (Asceticism; see II below). In the broader context of other religions, the term is also tied to the context of monasticism. When certain social structures in non-Christian reli…

[German Version] I. Concept Poverty is a major source of distress. It is a historical circumstance, not a natural condition. We speak of relative poverty when someone’s income is below the mean, absolute poverty when it is below subsistence level. From the perspective of the Bible and contemporary theology, poverty means deprivation but also marginalization, incapacitation, and disfranchisement. Wealth means affluence but also power, exploitation, and oppression (see III and V below). Poverty is a life and death matter. Elmar Klinger Bibliography E. Klinger, Armut, 1990 E.-U. Hu…

[German Version] (1095/1100, near Novara, Lombardy – Jul 21/22, 1160, Paris). After studying in northern Italy and Reims, Peter came to Paris c. 1135 as an outsider; by 1145 he was already one of the most important teachers in the cathedral school. On Jul 28, 1159, he was consecrated bishop of Paris, but he was unable to distinguish himself in that office. In his years of teaching, he produced glosses (Glossa ordinaria) on the Psalms (PL 191, 55–1296) and the Pauline Epistles, also called the magna (or maior) glossatura (PL 191, 1297–1696; 192, 9–520), as well as four books of Sententiae (crit…

[German Version] I. Middle Ages Waldenses (Valdesi), supporters of the townsman Waldo from Lyon, made their first historical appearance in 1179 at the Third Lateran Council, where they vainly requested permission to preach freely. In 1180, Waldo and his companions ( fratres) committed themselves to an orthodox creed at a synod in Lyon and pledged to lead a life according to the counsels of perfection. By doing so, the community of the “Poor of Lyon” attained public visibility. In analogy to other religious movements of the 12th century…

[German Version] (teachers of the church) is an honorific term first used by Bishop Licinianus of Cartagena toward the end of the 6th century (Gregory the Great, Ep. 1.41a). The canonization of theological authorities in Late Antiquity formed a circle of three liturgically venerated Doctores ecclesiae in the Eastern Church (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom) and of four in the West (first around 800: Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, Gregory I the Great). Boniface VIII first officially established ¶ the names of the four Latin egregii Doctores ecclesi…

[German Version] is a form of Christian devotion centered on the passion and crucifixion of Jesus (Passion/Passion traditions). Commemoration of the end of Jesus’ life was always a living presence in the Christian community – despite the criticism of his manner of death by Jews and pagans (1 Cor 1:23), which in turn fostered the Christian interpretation of the cross (Cross/Crucifixion) as a trophy while also discouraging iconographic representation of the crucifixion until the early 5th century. E…

[German Version] ( conversi) are, in the narrower sense, members of a religious community who are not ordained. In the course of history, however, the name fratres laici or conversi has designated various groups of persons. In the early medieval period, conversi were monks who, in contrast to ( pueri) oblati (Oblates: I) who were consigned to a monastery already as children, entered the monastery only as adults. In addition to this so-called “older institution of conversi,” a “younger institution of conversi” arose in the 11th century. It included members of the monastic familia who wer…

[German Version] The suburbicarian dioceses are those in the region adjacent ( suburbium) to Rome. Most have had a checkered history: Albano, Frascati (replacing Tusculum, which replaced Labicum and was de facto an episcopal see from 1058 to 1197, recognized nominally until 1537), Ostia, Palestrina, Porto (united the Santa Rufina [Silva Candida] by Callistus II), Sabina (the result of incorporating the see of Nomentum into the see of Forum Novum; united ¶ with Poggio Mirteto in 1925), Velletri (united with Ostia in 1150, separated once more in 1914, and united with …

[German Version] (died 1115, Antwerp), itinerant ascetic preacher, probably a layman, for some time a member of the circle of Count Robert II of Flanders. In 1112 he is ¶ said to have been in Rome trying to have the islands at the mouth of the Scheldt (Zeeland) removed from the bishopric of Utrecht and placed under the bishopric of Thérouanne (under the archbishopric of Reims). On his return journey, he was imprisoned by the archbishop of Cologne and charged with heresy by the Utrecht cathedral clergy. The stereotyped accusa…

[German Version] village in Latium, in the valley of the Aniene east of Rome. Here Benedict of Nursia is said to have lived in a cave (Sacro Speco) as a hermit and to have later joined with companions to form a monastic settlement in rooms of a former villa of the emperor Nero (monastery of San Clemente). In the years that followed, he is said to have founded ten additional monasteries before going to Monte Cassino in 529. Two of them are still standing today: San Benedetto (Sacro Speco) and, low…

[German Version] I. The term observantia denoted in classical Latin the due veneration of other human beings, especially those who surpass us in age, wisdom, and worth (Cic. De inventione 2.66, 161). In Latin of the imperial period it also came to mean respect for customs and laws (on the relationship with religio, cf. 2 Macc 6:11, Vulgate). From the early Middle Ages, the term was especially applied to religious behavior understood as compliance with divine commands: on the one hand, with regard to keeping church rules in general, especially those related to public worship, and, on the other hand, especially the strict following of the canonical and monastic way of life ( observantia canonica, regularis, vitae regularis etc.; Order, Rules of a religiou…

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[German Version] I. Early Research At the dawn of the 21st century, a history of piety is more a desideratum than a reality, especially in Protestantism. In the 19th century, the notion of piety as defined in its modern sense by Pietism, J.W. v. Goethe, and Romanticism and grounded theologically by F.D.E. Schleiermacher did not lead to academic study of the history of piety. To this day, religious scholarship avoids the term; there is no lemma Frömmigkeit in HRWG II, 1990. Not until the end of the 19th century did church history deal with the history of piety, primarily …

[German Version] (c. 1045, Arbrissel near Rennes – Feb 25, 1116, Priory of Orsan-en-Berry), son of a hereditary priest of Arbrissel. After studies in Paris, Robert entered the service of Bishop Silvester of Rennes as a clerk. After further studies in Angers (from 1078) he experienced a conversion to ascetic lif…

[German Version] An anonymous treatise from the late 14th century, preserved in eight medieval manuscripts. Luther arranged the first printing in 1516, based on a fragment subsequently lost (WA 1, 152f.: “a noble little spiritual book”) and the second in 1518, based on a complete …

[German Version] I. Western Hagiography – II. Eastern Hagiography – III. Medieval and Modern Judaism I. Western Hagiography Western hagiography, as a literature …

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[German Version] Latin patrocinium denotes a proprietary relationship, usually established by consecration, and the consequent protective function of a patron (usually a saint) with respect to a church or altar, a country, a city or bishopric, a group (social class, noble family, profession, guild, confraternity, university, monastery, religious congregation, or the like), or an individual. In return for protection, the patron is honored by the faithful in a wide variety of liturgical and paraliturgical forms. ¶ The ancient Roman term patronus first appears as a term for a spiritual protector in the correspondence of Ambrose of Milan ( Ep. 22.11). The earliest patrocinia were associated with churches. In principle, of course, every church is dedicated to its Lord Jesus Christ – hence the number of Salvator dedications in the early period, a form still highly popular in the Middle Ages. The differentiation of patrocinia was initially related in part to the commemorativ…

[German Version] From the late 14th century, reforming groups or tendencies within monasticism (III, 4.b), especially in the mendicant orders and most especially among the Franciscans, were called observants ( observantes, fratres de observantia etc.). In internal debates ¶ about the right way of life, they opposed easing of the rule and other kinds of adaptation that had crept in (Conventuals), and advocated strict following of the rules as rigorously interpreted, together with other prescriptions ( observantia regularis etc., Observance). In this, restoration of the vita commu…