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[German Version] (c. 1129 – Jun 18, 1164), of noble descent, entered the double monastery at Schönau (Nassau; OSB) as a twelve-year-old. Five years later, she took her vows there. Elizabeth became magistra of the congregation of nuns in 1157. Plagued by illnesses and anxieties, Elizabeth received many “revelatory visions” (Ruh) in ecstatic episodes beginning in 1152; the visions followed the liturgical year. Her brother, Ekbert (monk at Schönau beginning i…

[German Version] (1472 [?], Ipswich – Nov 29, 1530, Leicester). After studying at New College, Oxford, ordination to the priesthood (1501), and a term as court chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury, Wolsey, the son of an innkeeper and butcher, became chaplain to Henry VII in 1507. Under Henry’s successor, Henry VIII, his career in church and state began: appointed adviser to the king in 1511, in 1514 he was made bishop of Lincoln and later in the year archbishop of York. In 1515 he was made lor…

[German Version] Since the 12th century, individual convents were founded under the patronage of Mary Magdalene to accommodate converted prostitutes and save women in jeopardy. The order of the Penitent Sisters of Blessed Mary Magdalene (Poenitentes Sorores Beatae Mariae Magdalenae) traces back to the initiative of the Hildesheim canon Rudolph of Worms, who founded convents for these penitents throughout the empire, beginning in 1226. Affirmed by Gregory IX in 1227 and subject after 1232 to the Ru…

[German Version] (Scots Gaelic: Dun Eideann), capital of Scotland. Situated near the Firth of Forth, Castle Rock had probably long served as a stronghold when King David I founded Holyrood Abbey there and granted Edinburgh market rights in 1130. Elevated to city status by Robert the Bruce in 1329, Edinburgh rose to become the political and economic center of Scotland and …

[German Version] (c. 1456, Church Oakley, Hampshire – Aug 22, 1532, Hackington, near Canterbury). After studying at New College, Oxford (fellow 1475; LL.D. 1488), Warham had a successful legal career in the civil and ecclesiastical administration and as a diplomat: principal of the School for Civil Law, Oxford (1490), Master of the Rolls (1494), archdeacon of Huntingdon (1496), bishop of London (1502), Lord Chancellor (1504). Appointed archbishop of Canterbury in 1503, in 1509 he crowned Henry VII…

[German Version] (Morus; Feb 6/7, 1477/1478, London – Jul 6, 1535, London), prominent English Humanist, politician, and controversial theologian (Controversial theology). The son of a jurist, he attended school in London and subsequently became a page in the household of Cardinal Archbishop John Morton (1420–1500), who sent him to Oxford to study. In spite of his academic interests, his father insisted on an additional legal training at the Inns of Court. Thomas More worked as a lawyer from 1501 o…

[German Version] (1485, Thurcaston, Leicestershire – Oct 16, 1555, Oxford). The son of a free peasant, Latimer studied theology from 1506 onward at Clare College, Cambridge (B.A. 1510, M.A. 1514). Having initially defended the old faith as a preacher and university lecturer, he joined the Reformation around 1524 under the influence of T. Bilney. Highly esteemed at the court of Henry VIII for a time (appointment as bishop of Worcester in 1535), he fell out of favor from ¶ 1539 during the turmoil surrounding Anne Boleyn; he delivered his most famous sermons under Edward VI. …

[German Version] (1620, Lydeard St. Lawrence – Oct 18, 1677, London). After studying at Wadham College, Oxford (BA 1639), Manton, the son of a clergyman, began to preach and rapidly became the undisputed leader of the Presbyterians in London. He rose ¶ to become a scribe for the Westminster Assembly and often preached before the Long Parliament. After the fall of O. Cromwell, he sympathized with the Restoration under Charles II, but when the hopes of the Nonconformists (Dissenters) for concessions from the Anglicans were dashed, he refu…

[German Version] (Wyclif[f]ites), adherents of the teachings of J. Wycliffe, were persecuted as heretics in England by both the church and the state until 1559. Spread beyond Oxford, initially by Wycliffe himself and later by his students, Wycliffite ideas were evident from 1382 in London, Leicester, Bristol, and elsewhere. This led to a tightening of the heresy laws (esp. stricter controlling of teachers of theology and priests who preached out-¶ side their parishes; a penalty for possessing the English Bible and religious literature in the vernacular) and to ini…

[German Version] (Good Friday, 1277, Nuremberg – Dec 27, 1356, Engelthal Convent). The patrician's daughter entered the Engelthal Convent (Dominican) at the age of twelve. Her uncompromising conceptualization of the imitatio Christi and cloistered lifestyle led to corporal suffering and isolation within the community. Beginning in 1291, Ebner had extraordinary spiritual experiences that brought her fame in subsequent decades even outside her convent (1350…

[German Version] (Stuart of England; May 29, 1630, London – Feb 2, 1685, London), king of England. The son of the executed Charles I of England, he was exiled in 1651, but answered the call of his country to assume the crown in 1660. Thus began the Restoration period, which was characterized by a balance of power with respect to the interests of the Crown and of Parliament as well as by the reestablishment of the Anglican state church (Church of England, Anglic…

[German Version] (Waldensis; c. 1372, Saffron Walden,Essex –Nov 2, 1430, Rouen), Carmelite monk. Ordained to the priesthood in 1396, he studied and taught theology in Oxford. He was court preacher to Henry IV and confessor to his successors. As a convinced conciliarist he took part in the reforming Councils of Basel (Basel, Council of) and Pisa (Pisa, Council of); he attended the Council of Constance (Constance, Council of) as his king’s representative and (from 1414) provincial of his order. He f…

[German Version] I. General – II. Non-Christian Religions – III. Christianity – IV. Religion, Society, and Culture in the Present I. General England is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It has an area of 130,412 km2 and a population of 48,903,400. London, the capital, is also the largest city in the kingdom (7,074,300 inhabitants), followed by Birmingham (1,017,500). England comprises eight geographical regions (The S…

[German Version] (1347, Montau/Matowy near Danzig/Gdánsk – Jun 25, 1394, Marienwerder/Kwidzyn). Driven quite early by the desire for discipleship to Christ, this farmer's daughter nevertheless married in 1363. She subsequently led a life of intensive penitence and devotion shaped by love of poverty and the Eucharist, devotion to the passion and Mary, and bridal mysticism. She rec…

[German Version] (c. 1291, Donauwörth – Jun 20, 1351, Maria Medingen). This patrician's daughter entered the Convent of Maria Medingen at a very early age. Constantly ill and isolated within the convent from 1312 on, she understood her illness as her path to God. Prayer, contemplation, and asceticism under the banner of an intense devotion to Christ (reflection on the Passion, the childhood of Jesus, etc.) led her to mystical experiences (visions, auditions, glossolalia). ¶ Henry of Nördlingen was important for her spiri…

[German Version] (1485?, Putney – Jul 28, 1540, London). Born into humble circumstances, after a turbulent youth Cromwell acquired enough legal knowledge (probably self-taught) to find employment as a solicitor. Around 1520 he came to work for Cardinal T. Wolsey; in 1523 he became a member of Parliament. After Wolsey's fall in 1529, he continued to pursue his own career. Made a member of the royal council by Henry VIII in 1531, he consolidated his position…

[German Version] The founding of Cambridge University probably goes back to members of Oxford University who left Oxford in reaction to the closing of schools in 1209 that resulted from disputes between the city and the university. Although instruction resumed in Oxford in 1214, a few scholars remained in Cambridge. Proximity to the episcopal see of Ely favored the establishment of a permanent institution, and Cambridge and Oxford remained the only English univer…

[German Version] (Matthaeus Parisiensis; c. 1200 – June 1259, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England). In 1217, he entered the Benedictine Abbey of St. Albans, had contacts with the court of Henry III, and in 1248/1249 reformed the Norwegian monastery of Holm (OSB) on papal commission. As a chronicler, he continued the world chronicle of Roger of Wendover (died 1236) in his main work entitled Chronica maiora. He wrote several works on English history, including Historia Anglorum, and on the history of his own monastery, Gesta Abbatum. He authored lives of saints, including of Steph…

[German Version] (Aug 6, 1504, Norwich – May 17, 1575, Lambeth), son of a well-to-do weaver, studied at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge from 1522 to 1528; he remained close to the college throughout his life, being elected master in 1544. His collection of medieval manuscripts became the core of the college’s Parker Library. At Cambridge Parker was won to the Protestant cause (T. Bilney, H. Latimer). In 1535 Anne Boleyn, the mother of Elizabeth I, appointed Parker, now a well-known preacher, a…

[German Version] (1514 [?], Haddington, East Lothian – Nov 24, 1572, Edinburgh). As a theologian and church politician, Knox shaped the introduction of Protestantism to Scotland. Little is known about his background, youth, and intellectual development. Knox himself said nothing about these matters. After his studies, probably in St. Andrews, and his ordination to the priesthood (c. 1536), he initially worked as a notary and private tutor in the service of nobility in Lothian who sympathized with …

[German Version] is the term for a number of individuals and groups persecuted as heretical; they do not constitute a homogeneous organization, even if some connections exist between individual representatives – mostly laypersons, including a disproportionately large number of women. Nor can a unified doctrinal system be identified. More instructive than the stereotypical lists of heresies, as were produced by the church in the context of persecution, are direct sources from the series of Brothers and Sisters, especially the Miroir des simples âmes of Marguerite …

[German Version] (d. after 1351), a diocesan priest from Danube-Ries, acquired significance as a pastor of pious women in convents and lay women and thus influenced the mysticism (III, 3) of women in the 14th century. Not an adept of mysticism himself, he introduced his protégés to mystical ideas, was the spiritual director and interpreter of their experiences, and brought them into contact with like-minded people (M. Ebner, C. Ebner, J. Tauler). From 1338 to 1349, his partisanship for the pope of…

[German Version] (Peacock; Pavo; c. 1393, Wales – 1460/1461, Thorney Abbey, Cambridgeshire). After studying theology at Oxford (since 1409), Pecock served as a parish priest and later as a bishop (St. Asaph 1444, Chichester 1450). Despite several works against the ¶ Lollards, in 1457 he was charged with heresy; he was forced to recant, and several of his works were burned. After resigning his bishopric in 1459, he lived under house arrest in Thorney and was forbidden to write. Attacking the biblicism of the Lollards,…

[German Version] (1467 [?], London – Sep 16, 1519, London) was the son of an influential clothier, who studied at Cambridge (from 1481; M.A. 1488) and Oxford (from 1490; D.D. 1504). From 1492 to 1496, he travelled to Italy and France to pursue his studies; it is uncertain whether his preoccupation with Neoplatonism and Marsilio Ficino began during this period. In 1498, he was ordained to the priesthood, and he was made dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, London…

[German Version] (Jul 2, 1489, Aslockton, Nottinghamshire – Mar 21, 1556, Oxford), an English reformer who made a significant contribution to the formation of the via media of the Anglican Church. Stemming from the lower landed gentry, Cranmer studied from 1503 in Cambridge. After his M.A., he was elected in 1515 as a fellow in the Jesus College (consecrated to the priesthood c. 1520); he concluded his studies in 1526 as a D.D. (Doctor of Divinity). In these years, Cranmer was concerned…

[German Version] (later: Clerici apostolici S. Hieronymi), was a community founded around 1355 by Giovanni Colombini (died 1367) and his first associate, Francesco Vincenti. Initially, only laypersons lived together in poverty and penitence, with no fixed rule; they saw their vocation in praising God and in active love for their neighbor. The name derives from the exclamation in prayer, “O Gesù!” In 1367, the Jesuati obtained papal approbation and thereafter established monasteries in central and nort…

[German Version] (Dec 21, 1120 [?], London – Dec 29, 1170, Canterbury). After studying in Paris, Thomas, the son of a merchant, was accepted into the household of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury, who named him archdeacon of Canterbury in 1154. In 1155 Henry II appointed him as his chancellor. Thomas was ambitious and lived lavishly but was considered highly talented and incorruptible. As Henry’s confidant, he carried out the king’s policies even against the interests of the church. That changed …

[German Version] (c. 1495, Norfolk – Aug 19, 1531, Norwich) studied both kinds of law in Cambridge. He was ordained as a priest in 1519 and became a fellow of Trinity Hall in 1520. Under the influence of the Latin translation of the New Testament by Erasmus, Bilney began to devote himself to biblical studies. 1 Tim 1:15 helped him to a new understanding of the Christian faith, which freed him from anxiety about his salvation, so that an encounter with Lutheran thinking must be assumed as a preparation for his conversion. In the following period Bilney preached against saint and image ¶ veneration…

[German Version] I. Roman Catholic Archbishopric Following the Reformation in England, Roman Catholics labored under numerous constitutional and social disadvantages. Emancipation finally took place in 1829, despite considerable lingering anti-Catholic sentiment. Since the 1680s, four bishops, serving as vicars apostolic (Vicar apostolic), supervised Catholic interests in England; in 1840 four more were added. Various factors, most especially Irish immigration, the rise of the Oxford Movement, and the…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Traditionally research on religion has rarely dealt with women. Exceptions include Moriz Winternitz ( Die Frau in den indischen Religionen, 1915–1916) and F. Heiler ( Die Frau in den Religionen der Menschheit, 1977). In the 1970s, gender studies introduced a broad paradigm shift, which also affected religious studies. The principle that has guided this change from the traditional approach is that homo religiosus is not coincident with vir religiosus but equally has to include femina religiosa. The various questions can be assigned to th…