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[German Version] The notion of a new Jerusalem, an eschatological city of God on Mount Zion is already developed in the Old Testament (Zion Pss; Isa 28:16; 54:11f.; Ezek 40:2; 48:30–35; etc.); it was further nurtured by early Judaism (Qumran; 4 Ezra; etc.). The tendency to separate the heavenly Jerusalem from the earthly one, already apparent in the OT texts, became stronger, especially after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 ce. Thus 2 Bar. 4:2–6 states that the true Jerusalem intended by God is not the visible city; it is instead the preexistent Jerusalem, …

[German Version] (Jan 31, 1911, Avesnes, France – Oct 27, 1993, Clervaux, Luxembourg), a Benedictine monk, was one of the most prolific medievalists of the second half of the 20th century. Having studied in Rome and Paris, he also lectured in various places (esp. in Rome). In 1941, after conducting research on the Scholasticism of the 13th to 15th centuries, Leclercq turned to the partly still unpublished monastic literature of the Middle Ages, especially of the 11th and 12th centuries. His extens…

[German Version] (died Sep 10, 1279, Viterbo). The first reliable date from his life is his election as provincial master of the English Dominicans in September 1261. Working back, earlier dates may be deduced: studies at the Parisian faculty of arts in the 1230s, M.A. around 1237, lectureships in Paris until the mid-1240s, then return to England and entry into the Order of Preachers, theological studies in Oxford (c. 1252–1254 ¶ lecturer on the Sentences), Magister regens of theology in 1254. Having been elected archbishop of Canterbury in 1272, Robert Kilwardby t…

[German Version] I. Terminology and Assessment Ever since the emergence of medieval studies in the 19th century, the noun Scholasticism has been used as a collective term for a particular kind of scholarly method, especially in medieval philosophy (II) and theology. The adjective scholastic, on which it is based, has a history going back to Aristotle ( Politica, Ethica Nicomachea). The focus of Greek σχολαστικός and Latin scholasticus on the realm of academic instruction (“related to schools,” “educated,” etc.), central to the modern use of scholasticism, had already taken place…

[German Version] Seat of a bishopric in the county of Kent, England. Situated at an important road junction during the Roman period, Canterbury became the main settlement of the Cantiani in the first century ce and shows evidence of Christianization from the beginning of the 4th century. The conquest of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons dealt a severe blow to the development of the city. King Ethelbert made it the capital of the kingdom of Kent, while the Roman monk Augustine of Canterbury, a missionary dispatched by Pop…

[German Version] (1168, Mantua? – 1249, Budriolo, Romagna). A layperson who led a life of penitence as a hermit beginning in 1209 in the small village of Budriolo on the northern margins of the Apennines. He founded a hermit community named after him in 1217, at the earliest; it lived according to the Augustinian Rule (Augustine, rule of) and became an order active in pastoral care in northern Italy which was incorporated in 1256 into the order of the Augustinian Hermits. Ulrich Köpf Bibliography K. Elm, “Italienische Eremitengemeinschaften des 12. und 13. Jh.,” in idem, Vitasfratrum, 199…

[German Version] Genoa is the capital of the Liguria region and a major Italian port on the Gulf of Genoa, on the southern escarpment of the Ligurian Apennines (1998: 642,000 inhabitants). Settled since the 5th century bce by the Ligurians, then a Roman municipium, whose first Christian bishop is attested in 381 ce (it belonged to Milan until 1133, since then an archdiocese). Already a center of trade in the 6th century, the now wealthy Genoa came in the 11th century into competition with Pisa, emerging victorious, after a long struggle, in 1284.…

[German Version] (Nov 26, 1221, Toledo – Apr 4, 1284, Seville), king of Castile and Leon from 1252 to 1284. As the grandson of Philip of Swabia, he claimed the Hohenstaufen throne and embarked on an imperialistic policy embracing the entire Mediterranean region. His political ambitions came to nothing; he was more important as a lawgiver who sought to create a uniform code of law for Castile, historian (he wrote or directed the writing of a history of Spain, Estoria de España, and a universal history, Grande e general estoria), and promoter of astronomy, music, and poetry (427 Cantigas de S.…

[German Version] (c. 1300, northern Germany – Apr 10, 1378, Straßburg). Initially a Dominican, he was a Carthusian after c. 1340 (Straßburg, Coblenz [Prior], Mainz, Straßburg). His major work is the Vita Jesu Christi, a work based on the gospel harmony of Zacharias of Besançon (Chrysopolitanus, first half of the 12th cent.), early church authors and medieval, meditative and historicizing Jesus literature. It does not simply recount Jesus' life, but seeks, in individual sections (structured according to the scheme of lectio, meditatio and oratio and enriched by introductions an…

[German Version] (1248/1249, Foligno – Jan 4, 1309, Foligno). Influenced by the Franciscans at an early age, as a wife and mother Angela experienced a conversion to a life of asceticism and charity during a pilgrimage to Assisi in 1285. In 1291, after her immediate family had died, she joined the Franciscan Third Order. She lived with a female companion; a Franciscan who was related to her served as her confessor. At times a loose circle of disciples (including Ubertino of Casale) gathered about the magistra theologorum. Her confessor translated her ve…

[German Version] (Petrus; Manducator; early 12th cent., Troyes – 1178/1179, Paris). After studies in Troyes (where he became dean of the cathedral in 1147 and a canon of the abbey of St. Loup), Tours, and Paris, in 1159 he succeeded his teacher Peter Lombard at the cathedral school in Paris. In 1168 he became chancellor of Notre-Dame. During his last years, he lived in the Augustinian abbey of St. Victor. From his time as a teacher, many works have survived, mostly never published in print: glosses (Glossa ordinaria) on the Gospels, a commentary on the Psalms and (the first) on the Sentences of…

[German Version] (1026, Bavaria – Jul 5, 1091, Hirsau), who was of noble birth, was entrusted by his parents as an oblate (I) to the Benedictine abbey of St. Emmeram in Regensburg, where he was taught by Otloh of St. Emmeram. While still in Regensburg, he wrote two works on the quadrivium in dialogue form: De astronomia and De musica. In 1069 he was called to Hirsau as abbot (consecrated in 1071). He initially reformed the abbey after the model of St. Emmeram, which had adopted the reforms of Gorze Abbey; after 1076, however, Hirsau came under the influ…

[German Version] is a branch of theology that judges differences between various Christian Churches from a polemical and argumentative point of view rather than analyzing them from a historically critical perspective. The “controversy” involved relates both to the object and the method of this discipline. Theological positions are discussed when they become significant in disturbing or dividing the church community, and not so much as contributions to an open scholarly debate. I. Although the term controversial theology did not become common until the 20th century, …

[German Version] (Petrus; first half of the 12th cent., Hosdenc, near Beauvais – 1197, Cistercian abbey of Longpont, near Soissons). Sometime before 1173, after studying at the cathedral school in Reims, he began teaching at the cathedral school in Paris as a canon; in 1183 he was appointed to the post of cantor. He refused his election as bishop of Paris in 1196. In 1197 he was elected dean of the cathedral chapter of Reims, but died on his journey from Paris. Numerous works, some still unpublished, bear witness to his teaching activity: glosses on the Old and New Testaments; Distinctiones or S…

[German Version] were educational originally institutions for training clergy, administered by the episcopal curia. In the Early Church, learned bishops (preeminently Augustine) already gave instruction to their clergy. From the second Council of Toledo (527/531) onward, the Church repeatedly urged the establishment of episcopal schools; in 789, they were ¶ enjoined by Charlemagne, and in 1076 by Gregory VII. Nevertheless, down to the Reformation numerous councils deplored the educational level of the clergy – a sign of the great dispari…

[German Version] In classical Latin, the verb reformare and the associated noun reformatio already denoted a transformation for the better: restoration of an earlier human condition, since lost (morality e.g. Pliny the Younger Panegyricus 53.1: “corruptos depravatosque mores . . . reformare et corrigere”; bodily health e.g. Theodorus Priscianus Euproiston 1.38: “oculorum aciem reformare”), or physical objects (e.g. Solinus, Collectanea rerum memorabilium 40.5: “templum reformare”) or improvement without regard to the past (e.g. Sen. Ep. 58.26: “reformatio morum”; Ep. 94.5…

[German Version] Recluses or hermits are men and women who do penance by shutting themselves (or having themselves shut) into a cell, either for a specific period (usually at the beginning of their lives as ascetics) or for the rest of their lives. This extreme form of asceticism surfaced in the Early Church in all regions of the East where there were monastic settlements (e.g. in Egypt, John of Lycopolis; esp. common in Syria) and came to the West in the 6th century, but it reached its climax in …

[German Version] The Vikings were marauding seafarers from Scandinavia, who plagued large sections of Europe from ¶ the 8th century to the 11th century. Swedes descended on Novgorod and Kiev via the Gulf of Finland, advancing as far as the Black Sea (Varangians). Norwegians conquered Scotland and the northern and eastern parts of Ireland, settled Iceland, and sailed as far as Greenland, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. Danes settled between the mouths of the Oder and Vistula and landed on the southern and eastern …

[German Version] (after 841 – May 2, probably 908, Paris), a monk from the monastery of St. Germain in Auxerre, where he succeeded his teacher Heiric ( Heiricus). Remigius was involved in the renewal of the school of Reims around 893 and taught in Paris from 900 onward. He authored more than 20 works that were widely read in the Middle Ages, although most of them have never been printed: commentaries on ancient and early medieval grammarians and poets, on Genesis and the Psalms, and on Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae and Opuscula sacra; he also wrote an exposition of the mass. Ulrich Kö…

[German Version] Authoritative dicta with significant content (Gk γνώμη/ gnṓmē [earliest: Sophoc. Ajax 1091] alongside more specialized terms; Lat. sententia [since Cicero]) were already in use in pre-Christian times in literary and rhetorical contexts; later they were collected for more convenient use ( gnomology, similar to anthology [Florilegium]). Examples are Μενάνδρου γνώμαι μονόστιχοι/ Menándrou gnṓmai monóstichoi ¶ (probably begun in the 2nd cent. bce; continued into the Byzantine period) and Σέξτου γνώμαι/ Séxtou gnṓmai (c. 200 ce). During the Trinitarian contr…

[German Version] A true (as opposed to “rhetorical”) question (Gk ζήτημα/ zḗtēma, πρόβλημα/ próblēma, ἀπορία/ aporía, Lat. quaestio), seeking an answer that will solve a problem, is a fundamental tool for rational argumentation. It was used already by the ancient Greeks (beginning with the questions of Socrates in the dialogues of Plato) and rabbinic Judaism (in give and take between teacher and student). Formulation of questions became common early on in the theology of the Early Church (reaching a high point in Augustine, e.g. De diversis quaestionibus ad Simplicianum; Quaestione…

[German Version] The city is first mentioned in 912. It was founded in the Anglo-Saxon period and walled by the Normans, and lies at the intersection of important routes. As early as the 12th century there were schools for the artes liberales , law and theology, from which the university developed by the beginning of the 13th century. Following a conflict with the townspeople, most masters and students left Oxford in 1209; some of them founded Cambridge University. When others returned to Oxford in 1214 the university…

[German Version] The Carmelite Order goes back to a community of occidental hermits on Mount Carmel, who were granted a rule by the patriarch of Jerusalem in 1210. It obligated them to a strict contemplative life. The spirituality of the community, led by a prior, was marked by anachoretic traditions, the example of the prophet Elijah, and veneration of the Virgin Mary. In 1240, the Carmelites fled before the growing threat of the Saracens into their European homelands, where …

[German Version] 1. Giovanni (Feb 24, 1463, Mirandola near Modena – Nov 17, 1494, Florence), son of the count of Mirandola. From 1477, he studied canon law, artes liberales, philosophy, and literature, especially in Bologna, Ferrara, Padua, Paris, and Perugia. In addition to Greek, he learned Hebrew and Arabic. He paid several visits to Florence, where he made friends with Lorenzo de’ Medici and his circle, especially with M. Ficino, Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494), and Girolamo Benivieni (1453–1542). …

[German Version] In the 12th century, a scholarly work briefly summarizing the totality of important knowledge in a particular field (Robert of Melun: singulorum brevis comprehensio) came to be called a Summa (later also Summula). Various disciplines were represented: Summa grammaticae/grammaticalis; Summa super Priscianum; Summa dictaminis/artis notariae; Summa logicae ( Summulae dialectices/logicales/logicae); Summa de modis significandi; Summa philosophiae; Summula philosophiae naturalis; Summa de anima, etc. Compendia of civil and canon law were also called Summae…

[German Version] (of Milan; died 1278/1281, Milan). The only source for her life is the record of the trial of Wilhelmina and her followers conducted posthumously in 1300 by the Inquisition; it indicates that ¶ she was from Bohemia and was of noble birth. We know nothing of her life before her arrival in Milan between 1260 and 1270, but she is said to have had a son. In that period, numerous religious dissidents were living in Milan, which was shaken not only by conflicts with other cities of northern Italy and internal partisan …

[German Version] A first, widely disseminated collection of the Reformer's Latin works was published in Basel in 1518 by Johannes Froben; a first edition of his German works was published in Basel in 1520 by Andreas Cratander. Luther's literary productivity persuaded Cratander and then Adam Petri to publish two more Latin editions – each expanded – in March and again in July of 1520. The first complete edition of Luther's works, the Wittenberg edition, was published between 1539 and 1559 in two series of folio volumes, 12 in German and seven in Latin; the ed…

[German Version] I. Terminology Today we limit the term Reformation (from Lat. reformatio) exclusively to the events set in motion by M. Luther, ¶ U. Zwingli, and other Reformers, which led in the course of the 16th century to a cleavage within Western Christendom that has lasted to this day. Until well into the 19th century, however, the term still had its original, broader sense of reform (Reform, Idea of), under which the event we call the Reformation was subsumed. It was the appearance of the French word réforme in the 17th century, borrowed into German in the course of the 19t…

[German Version] (Mar 11, 1485, Cles – Jul 30, 1539, Brixen). After studies in Verona and Bologna, he received the Dr. utriusque iuris in 1511; he became canon of the Cathedral in Trent in 1512, and bishop there in 1514/15. From 1514, as adviser to Maximilian I, he mediated between the emperor and the regime in Innsbruck and upper Italy. After collaborating in the election of Charles V in 1519, he became an adviser to Ferdinand I, in 1522 his chancellor and repre…

[German Version] (1090/1091, Fontaines-lès-Dijon – Aug 20, 1153, Clairvaux). I. Life – II. Work – III. Influence I. Life Bernard, son of the Burgundian nobleman Tescelin le Saur and of Aleth of Montbard, was educated by the secular canons of St. Vorles in Châtillon. In 1113, along with 30 young noblemen, he entered the abbey of Cîteaux, whose abbot was Stephan Harding. In 1115, he was commissioned to fou…

[German Version] the most important and widespread typological work of the late Middle Ages, combining texts and pictures. It borrowed the structure of the Biblia pauperum (Bible of the Poor), organized around salvation history, and expanded it thematically, in particular by including scenes from the life of Mary and the passion of Jesus; it also divided the text into tractates. The title and year of composition (1324) of the nova compilatio appear already in early 14th-century manuscripts. Whether it was compiled by German Dominicans (possibly associated with Lud…

[German Version] The Augustinian Canons Regular institution founded c. 1077 in the Danube valley, which was never of transregional significance, was secularized in 1802 along with its 17th/18th century monastery and church (dedicated 1738) and promised to the principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1850, Prussian). Re-established as a Benedictine priory in 1863 under Prior Maurus Wolter, it was elevated in 1868 to an abbey and, during the exile of the monastery (1875–1887) forcibly elevated by the Kulturkampf , to archabbey. Linked from t…

[German Version] Mar 19, 1227 – Aug 21 or 22, 1241 (Hugo [Ugolino] Count of Segni; b. shortly before 1170, Anagni, Italy). After studying theology and law (Paris; Bologne?), he became cardinal deacon in 1198 and cardinal bishop of Ostia (dean of the college of cardinals) in 1206 under Innocent III. He was repeatedly the papal legate in Germany (1207 struggle for the throne) and central and upper Italy (1217–1219 preparing for the crusade ratified by the Fourth Lateran Council). In 1220, Gregory an…

[German Version] I. Early History – II. Character – III. Growth – IV. Development and Influence in the Middle Ages – V. The 15th Century and Afterwards I. Early History The first religious order in the history of Christian monasticism (III, 3) came into being when the Benedictine (Benedictines) abbey Novum Monasterium (from 1119: Cistercium, Fr. Cîteaux, hence the self-designation Cistercienses) in Burgundy established four daughter houses in the space of a few years (“primary abbeys”: La Ferté, 1113; Pontigny, 1114; Clairvaux and Mori…

[German Version] (after 990, near Ravenna – 1078, Fécamp). In 1017, John was sent from St. Bénigne in Dijon to be prior (from 1028 onward, abbot) in the La Trinité monastery in Fécamp and there became the most important proponent of Norman reform monasticism in the 11th century. His major works were Confessio theologica, Confessio fidei, Libellus de scripturis et verbis patrum collectus. Although John drew broadly on the tradition (esp. Augustine of Hippo and Gregory the Great) and did not yet make scholastic arguments, his markedly meditative theology had…

[German Version] (June 13, 1884, Paris – Sep 19, 1978, Auxerre), philosopher. In 1913, he became professor at Lille, in 1919 at Strasbourg, from 1921 to 1932 he was ¶ professor at the Sorbonne, and from 1932 at the Collège de France. In 1929, he co-founded the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto, and in 1947 became a member of the Académie Française. Gilson was also a systematic philosopher (e.g. Matières et formes, 1964; ET: Forms and Substances in the Arts, 2001), although the focal point of his work lay in the history of what he called “Christian philosoph…

[German Version] (Guilelmus Parvus; c. 1136, Bridlington, Yorkshire – 1198, Newburgh, Yorkshire). While a canon in the Augustinian canonry at Newburgh (Canons Regular of St. Augustine), in addition to sermons William wrote a mariological exposition of the Song of Songs ( Explanatio sacri epithalamii in matrem sponsi, ed. J.C. Gorman, 1960) and a history of England ( Historia rerum anglicarum, ed. R.Howlett, 2 vols., 1884–1885), a sober, precise, and balanced account of the period from 1066 to 1198 (i.e. the reigns of Henry II and Richard I of England). Ulrich Köpf Bibliography R. Jahnc…

[German Version] Mendicants Dispute, term for the controversies at the University of Paris about the status of the mendicants (Mendicant orders), who from 1217 (Dominicans) and 1219 (Franciscans) lived in Paris as students, preachers, and pastors, and who since the university strike from 1229 to 1231 also held chairs in the theological faculty (1229 Roland of Cremona OP, 1231 John of St. Giles OP, 1236 Alexander of Hales OFM). The growing competition with the mendicants, who were favored by the po…

[German Version] (Hospitallers), a lay brotherhood founded at the end of the 11th century in connection with the church of La-Motte-aux-Bois (since the 14th cent.: St.-Antoine-en-Viennois), which possessed the relics of the desert father Antonius. They cared for those ill with St. Anthony's fire (holy fire, ergot). The Antonites spread rapidly and were transformed in …

[German Version] Pallium, a circular stole worn on the shoulders over the mass robe, made of white wool decorated with black silk crosses, with a short strip with a black end hanging over the chest and the back (Vestments, Liturgical). It presumably developed from the sash worn by Roman officials in late imperial times, and from the early 6th century the pope has been entitled to wear this liturgical vestment. From the 9th century he bestowed it on archbishops, who, however, were allowed to wear i…

[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] (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 tho…