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[German Version] is an Umbrian city on the western foothills of Monte Subasio. It was a Roman municipium and the home of the poet Propertius. Since the early 4th century it has been the seat of a bishopric (city patron: the martyred bishop Rufinus). In the early Middle Ages it belonged to the Lombard Duchy of Spoleto, was under Hohenstaufen dominion from 1172/…

[German Version] (Discalceates). The term for religious people who, as an expression of penitence and in reference to Jesus' missionary instructions, wear no shoes or only sandals: in the Middle Ages, these were at first the Camaldolese and especially the Franciscans, who came to be known as Barefoot Friars in Germany; in the modern period, especially the Passionists. Going barefoot is also characteristic for reform movements in some of the older orders since the 16th century (Carmelites Augustinian Hermits, Trinitarians, Mercedarians). Ulrich Köpf Bibliography E. Pacho, “Scalz…

[German Version] I. History The notion of a history of theology is a product of the modern era, but the roots of a historical perspective can be traced back to the Early Church. One is the doxography of heresy (the earliest extant being Irenaeus’s Adversus haereses), which was a foundation for the history of dogma (Dogma, History of); another was literary history (Literature, History of: V, 2.a), beginning with Jerome’s De viris illustribus (392). But it was not until the age of Protestant orthodoxy (II, 2) that scholars began to reflect on writing a history of theo…

[German Version] (483 – 577 or 583) founded several Irish monasteries and was abbot of Clonfert (County Galway). He is known to us from the legendary account of a seven-year voyage of Brendan and his companions to a paradisal island in the Atlantic ( Navigatio S. Brendani), written between the 7th and 10th centuries. The work relates more closely to the lives of the desert fathers and Old Irish seafaring literature than to Irish hagiography. It draws on classical …

[German Version] I. University 1. The University of Tübingen was founded in 1477 by count Eberhard the Bearded, during what is known as the “second foundation wave” of German universities. It was the university of the southern part of Württemberg, at that time divided into two. It received the papal privilege in 1476, and imperial confirmation in 1484. For the material support of the professorial chairs, the count devoted eight of the ten regular canonries, and two-thirds of the income of the Sindel…

[German Version] In German, especially in Protestantism, this term (from Lat. devotio) is still used today only in connection with the Roman ritual of devotio and the late medieval devotio moderna movement. In pre-Christian usage, devotio referred to the dedication of the will to the gods, humans, and laws. In Christian usage, its meaning was restricted to the dedication to God associated with obedience and humility. Thomas Aquinas treated devotion along with prayer as interior actus religionis, from which external actions proceed ( Summa Theologiae 2–2 q. 82). In modern usage,…

[German Version] (Giovanni Fidanza; c. 1217, Bagno-regio [south of Orvieto] – Jul 15, 1274, Lyon) I. Life – II. Work – III. Influence I. Life Most of the dates for Bonaventura's life prior to 1257 are uncertain. After studying in the Paris faculty of arts, the son of Giovanni and Ritella Fidanza joined the Franciscans around 1243, who gave him the name Bonaventura. He began studying under Alexander of Hales, earning his Baccalaureus biblicus in 1248 and lecturing on the Sentences in 1250–52. In 1253 he received the licentiate and began teachi…

[German Version] The German term Mentalität has been used since the 1970s in the scientific language of German historians. It is formed from the French mentalité, adopted in the 18th century from the English “mentality,” which was derived in 17th-century philosophical language from the adjective “mental.” In France, mentalité entered common language during the 19th century. It became popular around 1900 in political language (Dreyfus affair) and in the school of the sociologist E. Durkheim. Through the historians Lucien Febvre (1878–1956) and…

[German Version] The word legend (from Middle Lat. legenda [ sc. vita or acta]) originally denoted a text to be read during worship or within a monastic community, especially at mealtime, in walkways set aside for reading, or in the chapter house. The subject matter was the life and deeds of one or more saints (Saints/Veneration ¶ of the saints: II). For the most part, the legend was regularly read in whole or in part on the festival of the particular saint. In conjunction with the functionalization of the cult of the saints, which had already begun i…

[German Version] One of the central demands of the Wittenberg and Swiss Reformation was thorough theological education of all future clergy. In Lutheran territories, Reformed theological faculties in ¶ the existing universities served this function, but initially in Reformed territories such institutions were largely lacking. Only three existing comprehensive universities intermittently offered Reformed instruction: Heidelberg from 1559 to 1578 and from 1583 to 1662, Marburg between 1605 and 1624 and again after 1653, Frank…

[German Version] I. The Term – II. Assessment and Study – III. Definition – IV. Characteristics – V. Early, High, and Late Middle Ages I. The Term French moyen âge has been used for a historical period since 1572, English Middle Age(s)…

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[German Version] (Valdez; died c. 1205/1218). The scanty tradition concerning Waldo permits only a few safe statements about him. A baptismal name ( Petrus) is first mentioned in the second half of the 14th century. A prosperous citizen of Lyon, around 1176/1177 he appears to have been converted to an apostolic life by the legend of Alexius or biblical texts translated into the vernacular. Whether he was attracted primarily by the ideal o…

[German Version] Academic degrees came into existence in the context of medieval education. Even before universities were established, teachers were generally given the title Magister; while the usual title in the stronghold of legal studies at Bologna was Doctor, which also was often applied to the teachers of the Early Church ( Doctores ecclesiae ). At the universities, which arose c. 1200, the master's degree was the highest degree granted by all the faculties, with a distinction between someone who was merely qualified to teach and a Magister actu regens (a professor engaged in …

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[German Version] (Éon d'Étoile; died after 1148), possibly of noble birth, was a charismatic hermit and itinerant preacher of little …

[German Version] (1129/1130 – Aug 6, 1195, Braunschweig), duke of Saxony and Bavaria, son of the Guelph Henry X the Proud, and Gertrud, daughter of Emperor Lothar III, cousin of Frederick Barbarossa. His second marriage was with Mathilde, daughter of King Henry II of England. Henry the Lion was a ruler with great self-confidence and a pronounced dr…

[German Version] 1. Those who belong to a convent (Lat. conventus), i.e. all the full members of a religious community at a specific location. 2. In the context of a particular monastic way of life, and especially among the mendicant orders, “conventuals” refers to that group or tendency within the order which continues to follow the “old observance” (usually in a previously mitigated form) in the midst of internal disputes over the proper observance of the rule, and which accordingly …

[German Version] (Gottfried of Clairvaux; c. 1114/20, Auxerre – after 1188, Hautecombe). As a student of Abelard, attracted to the Cistercians in ¶ 1140 by the Paris sermon of Bernard of Clairvau…

[German Version] The Ambrosians are a religious community first mentioned in 1375 in a bull of Gregory XI; they are traced to three nobles from Milan. The monasteries they established lived independently according to the Augustinian rule (Augustine, Rule of) and followed the Ambrosian rite in worship; they were united by Eugene IV with other groups as the Congregatio fratrum S. Ambrosii ad nemus Mediolanensis in 1441. After varying…