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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 …

[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 M…

[German Version] (Scots Gaelic: Dun Eideann), capital of Sc…

[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 …

[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 onward, but cont…

[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 …

[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) fo…

[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-…

[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, visit of Emperor Charles IV (Luxembourg). By 1338 at the latest she was in contact with Henry of Nördlingen, who gave her literary encouragement (Mechthild v. Magdeburg) and put her in contact with likeminded individuals (J. Tauler, M. Ebner). Inspired by her father-confessor, Konrad v. Füssen, she began to record her “revelations” (visions, dialogues with Christ or the Trinity, etc.; unpublished) in …

[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 …

[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 a…

[German Version] I. General – II. Non-Christian Religions – III. Christianity – IV. Religion, Society, and Culture in the Present…

[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 …

[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 by loyally representing the interests of the king, especially in Henry's marriage with Anne Boleyn. In 1535/1536 he was appointed viceregent and vicar-general of the king for spiritual matters, outranking Archbishop T. Cranmer, and given the task of reforming the church. Even the fall of Anne Boleyn in 1536 did not impede Cromwell's further rise. In 1540, however, shortly after having bee…

[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…

[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 …